紐時賞析／西方武器相助 烏克蘭在砲戰中扭轉戰局

Cheap Drones and Western Weapons Turn Tide

西方武器相助 烏克蘭在砲戰中扭轉戰局

On the screen of a thermal imaging camera, the Russian armored personnel carrier disappeared in a silent puff of smoke.

紅外線熱影像儀的螢幕上，俄羅斯裝甲運兵車在一陣無聲的煙霧中消失。

“What a beautiful explosion,” said 1st Lt. Serhiy, a Ukrainian drone pilot who watched as his weapon buzzed into a Russian-controlled village and picked off the armored vehicle, a blast that was audible seconds later at his position about 4 miles away.

烏克蘭無人機操作員謝爾蓋中尉說：「多麼美妙的爆炸。」他看著自己的武器飛進一個俄羅斯控制的村莊，瞄準擊中裝甲車。數秒鐘後，他所在的大约4英里外位置可聽到爆炸聲。

“We used to cheer, we used to shout, ‘Hurray!’ but we’re used to it now,” he said.

他說：「我們曾經歡呼，我們曾經大喊『萬歲！』，但我們現在已經習慣了。」

The war in Ukraine has been fought primarily through the air, with artillery, rockets, missiles and drones. And for months, Russia had the upper hand, able to lob munitions at Ukrainian cities, towns and military targets from positions well beyond the reach of Ukrainian weapons.

烏克蘭戰爭主要在空中作戰，使用的是火砲、火箭、飛彈和無人機。曾有幾個月俄羅斯占上風，能從烏克蘭武器射程外的位置向烏克蘭城鎮及軍事目標投擲彈藥。

But in recent months, the tide has turned along the front lines in southern Ukraine. With powerful Western weapons and deadly homemade drones, Ukraine has artillery superiority in the area, commanders and military analysts say.

但近幾個月來，烏克蘭南部前線形勢逆轉。指揮官和軍事分析家表示，有了西方強力武器和致命的自製無人機，烏克蘭在當地擁有火砲優勢。

Ukraine now has an edge in range and in precision-guided rockets and artillery shells, a class of weapons largely lacking in Russia’s arsenal.

目前烏克蘭在射程、精準導引火箭與砲彈上擁有優勢，這類武器在俄羅斯武器庫中基本上是缺乏的。

The Russian military remains a formidable force, with cruise missiles, a sizable army and millions of rounds of artillery shells, albeit imprecise ones. It has just completed a mobilization effort that will add 300,000 troops to the battlefield, Russian commanders say, although many of those will be ill-trained and ill-equipped. And President Vladimir Putin has made clear his determination to win the war at almost any cost.

即便不精準，俄軍仍是支強大力量，擁有巡弋飛彈、規模可觀的軍隊和數百萬發砲彈。俄羅斯指揮官說，俄軍剛完成一項動員工作，將向戰場增兵30萬人，即便當中許多人缺乏訓練和裝備。俄羅斯總統普亭已表明不惜代價贏得這場戰爭的決心。

Still, there is no mistaking the shifting fortunes on the southern front.

然而，南方戰線的命運無疑正在改變。

Ukraine’s growing advantage in artillery, a stark contrast to fighting throughout the country over the summer when Russia pummeled Ukrainian positions with mortar and artillery fire, has allowed slow if costly progress in the south toward the strategic port city of Kherson, the only provincial capital that Russia managed to occupy after invading in February.

烏克蘭在火砲方面的優勢日益增強，跟夏天全國各地的戰鬥形成鮮明對比。俄羅斯當時用迫擊砲和大砲猛轟烏克蘭陣地，使其在南部向戰略港市赫松取得緩慢而代價高昂的進展。赫松是俄羅斯2月入侵烏克蘭後，唯一成功占領的省級首府。

“We can reach them and they cannot reach us,” said Maj. Oleksandr, the commander of an artillery battery on the Kherson front, who like others interviewed for this article gave only his first name for security reasons. “They don’t have these weapons.”

赫松前線一個砲兵連的指揮官亞歷山大少校說：「我們能打到他們，但他們打不到我們。他們沒有這些武器。」出於安全考量，他跟接受本文採訪的其他人一樣僅透露自己名字。

This firepower has tipped the balance in the south, raising expectations that a long-anticipated assault on Kherson is drawing near.

這種火力已經打破南部的平衡，讓人們預期，對赫松期待已久的攻擊即將到來。

文／Andrew E. Kramer　譯／陳韋廷