Smoke billowed over St Petersburg this weekend, after Ukrainian drones struck the city’s oil terminal. In Moscow, long queues formed at those petrol stations that were still open.
上周末，在乌克兰无人机袭击了圣彼得堡的石油码头后，滚滚浓烟笼罩着这座城市。在莫斯科，那些仍在营业的加油站外排起了长队。
The increasing frequency and accuracy of Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes have caused Russia’s biggest fuel crisis in decades. It has also created a growing sense that the momentum in the war has changed. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, said last month: “We, the Germans, the UK, the French all are of the view that the tide has turned . . . Putin is going to lose.”
乌克兰远程无人机袭击的频度和精准度日益提高，导致俄罗斯发生数十年来最严重的燃料危机。这也让越来越多人感觉到，这场战争的势头已经发生了变化。加拿大总理马克•卡尼(Mark Carney)上月表示：“我们、德国、英国、法国都认为，局势已经发生逆转……普京将会失败。”
But few people believe that the Russian leader will simply accept defeat, so western policymakers are braced for a summer of escalation. “The question we’re all asking”, says one, “is what is Putin going to do?”
但没几个人相信俄罗斯领导人会爽快地接受失败，因此西方政策制定者正准备迎接一个战事不断升级的夏天。“我们都在问的问题是，”其中一人表示，“普京接下来会怎么做？”