直升機在烏克蘭天空的戰鬥轟鳴

On a field, three Soviet-era helicopters were being readied for battle. Pilots and crew checked the flight plan for their next target, while technicians loaded rockets into launcher pods and stacked flares into racks behind the exhaust.

在一個機場，3架蘇聯時期直升機正準備好作戰。當機組員檢查他們針對下個目標的飛行計畫時，機工人員則將火箭裝入發射莢艙，並把熱焰彈疊到該直升機排氣管後方的架子裡。

One year into the war, against all the odds, Ukraine’s helicopter brigades are still operational. Every day of the week, multiple times a day, they go into battle against enemy forces, launching rocket attacks along the front lines in support of ground troops and occasionally slipping under Russian air defenses to fly covert missions into enemy territory.

俄烏戰爭已歷一年，儘管困難重重，烏軍幾個直升機旅仍未停止運作。在本周的每一天，每天都有好幾次，這些直升機會和敵軍作戰；沿著前線發動火箭攻擊，掩護地面部隊；有時也會在俄羅斯空防疏漏下，飛入敵境執行祕密任務。

Far from being knocked out in the first days of the invasion, Ukraine’s helicopters and jets have kept flying, remaining an inspiring and useful element of the war effort.

烏軍直升機及噴射機非但沒在俄國入侵的頭幾天就被擊垮，反而持續升空，成為作戰行動中一個激勵人心又有助益的元素。

The 18th Sikorsky Brigade, the foremost of Ukraine’s four helicopter brigades, gave reporters access to a combat unit for two days recently. Officers and pilots described how the Ukrainian brigades moved their aircraft at the onset of the war to evade Russian strikes, and how they adapted their tactics to fighting a much more powerful and better equipped adversary.

「第18塞考斯基旅」是烏軍四個直升機旅中的王牌，最近允許記者們進入其一支作戰分隊兩天。軍官與駕駛員描述烏軍直升機旅在戰爭爆發時如何移動其機群躲避俄國攻擊，以及他們如何調整戰術對抗一個更強大、裝備更好的敵人。

“We go where we should not go,” said Oleksiy, 38, a colonel and deputy commander of the brigade. He gave only his first name in keeping with military protocol. “The main task is to destroy the enemy by fire.”

「我們去不該去的地方」，38歲的奧列克西上校說，他是該旅副指揮官，遵守軍規僅提供名字，「主要任務是以火力摧毀敵方」。

Both sides have used helicopters for critical tasks because of their mobility. Russia landed troops in the first days in at least two locations, and Ukraine flew rescue missions to the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol. Yet helicopters have also proved vulnerable as the fighting primarily turned into an artillery war on the open plains of eastern Ukraine, and tasks were limited to firing rockets from Ukrainian lines.

由於直升機的機動性，雙方都將其用於關鍵任務。在開戰頭幾天，俄國使其部隊在至少兩個地點登陸，烏克蘭則飛到馬立波遭包圍的亞速鋼鐵廠，執行救援任務。然而，當戰鬥主要轉為在烏東開闊平原的砲戰時，直升機就證明其脆弱性，其任務亦限於從烏戰線發射火箭。

The Ukrainians fly aging Russian-made helicopters that were designed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.

烏軍的老舊俄製直升機，是1960年代及1970年代在蘇聯設計。

“These are helicopters from the last century,” Oleksiy said. Their weapons, unguided, Soviet-era rockets, “are very outdated and don’t meet the requirements of modern combat.”

「這些是來自上個世紀的直升機」，奧列克西說，其武器是沒有導向裝置的蘇聯時期火箭，「非常落伍，也不符合現代戰鬥需求」。

One consolation for the Ukrainians is that their Russian adversaries are flying similar machines whose design has not advanced much in recent decades, but Russia has a big advantage in the volume of helicopters and ammunition. “Most of their weapons are also from Soviet times,” Oleksiy said, “but you can’t underestimate the fact they have a lot of this Soviet metal.”

烏克蘭的俄國對手正飛著近幾十年來設計並無很大進步的類似直升機，這讓烏克蘭人感到安慰，惟俄國在直升機和彈藥的數量上有很大優勢。奧列克西表示，「他們大部分的武器同樣來自蘇聯時期，但你不能低估他們握有許多這樣的蘇聯金屬製品」。　

困在脫歐僵局的駐英外交官 如今看到新起點

As the European Union’s ambassador to London, João Vale de Almeida had a ringside seat for the chaos overwhelming British politics last year, when all eyes were on the missteps, scandals and resulting downfalls of two prime ministers in quick succession.

身為歐盟駐倫敦大使，阿爾梅達能夠就近觀察去年淹沒英國政壇的亂局，彼時所有目光盯著相關的失策、醜聞，並導致兩個英國首相相繼迅速垮台。

Under either of the ousted prime ministers, Vale de Almeida indicated, prospects were dim for resolving one of the most serious conflicts contributing to rocky post-Brexit relations between Britain and the European Union: the trade status of Northern Ireland.

阿爾梅達指出，下台的兩位英相任內，要解決北愛爾蘭貿易地位的可能性渺茫，這也是導致脫歐後英國和歐盟不穩定關係的最嚴重衝突之一。

But the relationship has shifted significantly with the rise of a new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, Vale de Almeida said, culminating Monday when Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, struck a deal to resolve their Northern Ireland dispute.

但阿爾梅達說，隨著英國新首相蘇納克上台，雙邊關係已顯著改變，並在周一達到高點，當時蘇納克與歐盟行政部門歐盟執委會主席范德賴恩達成解決北愛爭端的協議。

That breakthrough, Vale de Almeida said, opened a path to greater cooperation not only between Brussels and London but also between Europe and the United States in confronting common challenges such as Russian aggression and rising tension with China, where Western cooperation is essential.

阿爾梅達說，此一突破開闢蹊徑，不僅讓布魯塞爾和倫敦擴大合作，也讓歐洲與美國更能對抗西方世界必須合作的共同挑戰，如俄羅斯的侵略以及和中國之間升高的緊張。

“If Sunak gets enough support for the deal, we can see this as a new beginning,” Vale de Almeida, who completed his assignment in London late last year, said in an interview. “With the EU, the U.K. and the U.S., there is a triangular dimension.”

去年底卸下駐節倫敦職務的阿爾梅達受訪表示，「如果蘇納克得到對於該協議的足夠支持，我們就可將之視為一個新起點」，「有了歐盟、英國及美國，就有一個三維空間」。

The agreement followed an era of unrivaled mistrust under Sunak’s two most recent predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and Vale de Almeida said the accord illustrated growing European faith in the new British prime minister.

在蘇納克的前兩任首相強生和特拉斯任內，歐盟與英國空前缺乏互信，如今得以簽署協議，阿爾梅達表示，這說明歐洲對這位新英相信任加深。

The deal, called the Windsor Framework, outlines mechanisms to smooth trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom without impeding trade across Northern Ireland’s land border with Ireland, an EU member country.

這項名為「溫莎架構」的協議，勾勒了北愛與聯合王國其他部分順利貿易的機制，而且不會阻礙北愛和歐盟成員國愛爾蘭的陸地邊界貿易。

Tension over the status of Northern Ireland has bedeviled negotiators since Britain voted in 2016 to withdraw from the bloc. In 2020, both sides ratified a withdrawal agreement negotiated by Johnson that kept goods flowing freely across the Irish border but infuriated many people in Northern Ireland by hampering the territory’s trade with Great Britain.

自英國2016年公投脫離歐盟以來，關於北愛地位引發的緊張一直困擾談判代表。2020年，雙方簽署一項由強生談判的脫歐協議，保持貨物在愛爾蘭邊界自由流動，但該協議阻礙北愛和英國的貿易，激怒很多北愛人。

Johnson and Truss then backed legislation to allow Britain to renege on parts of the deal they had approved, angering EU officials. Sunak agreed to drop that plan while securing some new concessions on behalf of Northern Ireland.

接著強生及特拉斯支持立法，讓英國得以在他們已經批准的這項協議部分條文上反悔，此舉觸怒歐盟官員。蘇納克同意放棄該方案，同時代表北愛爭取到若干新讓步。