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Ukrainians like Yaroslav were unsure whether their young nation, independent at that point for barely two decades, would survive.
像雅罗斯拉夫这样的乌克兰人不确定，他们年轻的国家此时刚刚独立了20年，能否继续生存下去。
His father, who did dispiriting service in the Soviet Ground Forces in East Germany during the Cold War, tried to talk him out of it.
他的父亲曾在冷战期间在东德的苏联地面部队服役，服役经历令人沮丧，父亲试图说服他放弃。
But Yaroslav, swollen with the same patriotism Volodymyr now felt, asked him, “If not me, who?”
但雅罗斯拉夫，怀着与沃洛德米尔同样的爱国之情，问他:“如果不是我，那是谁?”
He was one of thousands of Ukrainians, young and old, men and women, who rushed to defend their country then.
他是当时成千上万的乌克兰人之一，无论男女老幼，都奔赴战场保卫自己的国家。
He had been on the front since, fighting in some of the war’s pivotal battles.
从那以后，他一直在前线，参加了这场战争的一些关键战役。
Roughly 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians had died.
大约有1.3万名乌克兰士兵和平民死亡。
But now the war was stalemated.
但现在战争陷入了僵局。
The front line had barely shifted in years.
多年来，前线几乎没有移动过。
Ukraine wasn’t relenting, but neither was it willing to go on the offensive to retake the seized territory.
乌克兰没有让步，但也不愿意继续进攻，重新夺回被占领的领土。
The enemy likewise refused to retreat.
敌人同样拒绝撤退。
Yet it was clear to Yaroslav, and to anyone else paying attention, that Russia no longer had much use for the D.P.R. or L.P.R.
然而，雅罗斯拉夫以及其他任何关注此事的人都清楚，俄罗斯对顿涅茨克人民共和国或卢甘斯克人民共和国已经没有多大用处了。
It hadn’t fully annexed them, as it had Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, instead leaving the statelets in a kind of limbo of national identity: part Russian, part Ukrainian, generally miserable.
俄罗斯没有像吞并乌克兰的克里米亚半岛那样完全吞并这些国家，而是让这些国家处于一种国家身份的不确定状态:一部分是俄罗斯人，一部分是乌克兰人，总体上很悲惨。
While the people there waited to learn their fates, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who was elected in 2019 on the promise of restoring Donbas to the country, had made no progress in this regard and was increasingly unpopular.
乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽伦斯基于2019年凭借恢复顿巴斯的承诺当选，尽管那里的人民在等着知晓自己的命运，但他在这方面没有取得任何进展，而且越来越不受欢迎。
The European countries that had seen fit to reproach Russia over the war had now moved on.
那些认为应该就战争谴责俄罗斯的欧洲国家现在已经停下了。
As for the United States, Ukrainians had held out hope that President Biden would be an improvement on Donald Trump, who courted President Vladimir Putin of Russia and tried to block military aid to Ukraine.
至于美国，乌克兰人曾希望拜登总统会比唐纳德·特朗普有所改善，特朗普曾向俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京示好，并试图阻止对乌克兰的军事援助。
Biden was taking a harder line with Putin, but when the two met earlier in the summer and Zelensky tried to interpose on the summit with dire warnings about the war, he was ignored.
拜登对普京采取了更强硬的态度，但当两人在今年夏天早些时候会面，泽伦斯基试图以有关战争的可怕警告介入峰会时，他被忽视了。
As the stalemate dragged on, Yaroslav felt that even the Ukrainian Army had become indifferent to soldiers like him.
随着僵局的持续，雅罗斯拉夫觉得就连乌克兰军队也对他这样的士兵漠不关心。
On visits home, he told his father and fiancée that his will to fight had run dry.
在回家的时候，他告诉他的父亲和未婚妻，他的战斗意志已经枯竭。
He had put in his papers.
他已经递交了文件。
He had bought a house and renovated it.
他买了一所房子并整修了一番。
Soon he would be there, tending his vegetable garden.
很快他就会在那里，照料他的菜园。
