「早く！ 地下へ！」　不安に包まれるウクライナの首都住民

【キエフＡＦＰ＝時事】「全員！ 今すぐ！ 早く！」と、道路の向こうから駆け付けながらウクライナ兵が叫ぶ。路上には手りゅう弾や砲弾の破片が散乱している。（写真はウクライナ・キエフの防空壕（ごう）に避難した親子）
　兵士の後方には、枠組みだけが残った黒焦げのウクライナ軍のトラックが見える。首都キエフ北部に軍需品を運ぶ途中で攻撃を受けたのだ。
　兵士の前方では、ハンドバッグを持った高齢女性と中年男性の集団が、たばこを吸いながら、戦況について話している。
　頭上では、キエフに向けて放たれた砲撃砲かロケット弾の音が、不吉なくらい近い距離から聞こえてくる。
　居合わせた人は一斉に走って角を曲がり、コンクリート製の地下室に向かう暗い階段を駆け降りた。
　地下室にはすでに、疲れ切った様子の一団がいた。みんな、あと少しでキエフを脱出できたはずだった。
　ＩＴエンジニアのヘルガ・タラソバさん（３６）は、「脱出の途中で砲撃が始まった」と語った。タラソバさんは幼い息子を連れ、数人の友人とキエフ駅行きのバスに乗っていた。そこから西部リビウに向かい、ポーランドに逃れられればと考えていた。
　「駅まであと８００メートルだったのに」と、膝の上で息子をあやしながら振り返る。警備隊が通してくれなかったという。「かばんを持って走っていたから怪しまれたのかもしれない」

■心配することが心配
　キエフは包囲されている。２６日には外出禁止令が出された。路上に人がいればすぐに撃つとされている。
　住民は、むき出しの窓ガラスに目張りし、侵攻してくるロシア軍を混乱させるため、通りの名や番地など目印になりそうな市内の標識を隠し始めた。
　営業を続けているガソリンスタンドは少なく、何十台もの車が列を成している。
　食料品店は閉まっているか、開いていても空の棚をじっと見る人であふれている。パンや普通の肉類、チーズなどは売り切れていることが多い。
　年金受給者のタチアナさんの避難した地下室は、狭い通路でつながれた３部屋に分かれている。黒いワイヤで白熱電球がぶら下がっている。
　ある男性は、数枚の木の板の上にヨガマットを敷いて眠った。横には木製の椅子があり、その上にはバケツが載っている。
　歩き回る男性もいれば、小声で話をする女性もいる。子どもたちは心配事などないかのように遊んでいる。
　妊娠８か月のユリアさん（３２）は、心配することが心配だと話す。「早産してしまわないように、できるだけ落ち着こうとしている」と言う。
　「夜に１時間以上大きな爆発があった。すべて数日で終わってほしい」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/02/28-12:41）

It was hard to tell what scared the elderly women more: the piercing peal of air raid sirens or the terrified urgency of the Ukrainian soldier who ordered everyone to run for cover.
Everyone! Immediately! Now! the soldier screamed as he dashed in his heavy boots across a road scattered with the exploded remains of grenades and shells.
Behind him stood the charred skeleton of a Ukrainian military truck that was hit while ferrying ordnance to a flashpoint district of northern Kyiv.
Before him were elderly women with handbags and middle-aged men chatting about the war while blowing out cigarette smoke.
And above them -- somewhere in the ominous distance -- was the swooshing sound of either mortars or Grad missiles being fired in a barrage on Ukraine's capital.
The passers-by all ran around the corner of a building and down a dark flight of stairs leading into a concrete basement.
Already waiting for them was a sheltering group of exhausted people who had come desperately close to getting out of Kyiv on the third day of Russia's invasion of their country.
We were trying to evacuate, but half-way down the road, they started shelling, IT engineer Helga Tarasova said.
She had taken a bus to Kyiv train station with her young son and several friends.
Their next stops were supposed to be the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and then -- possibly -- Poland.
We only had 800 metres (half a mile) to go until the station, the 36-year-old recalled, while bouncing her son on her knee.
But the national guard would not let us through. We were running with our bags and I think the bags scared them.
- Shoot-on-sight -
The Ukrainian capital is under seige.
It entered a weekend curfew on Saturday evening that is being enforced with shoot-on-sight orders.
Residents have started taping over exposed window panes and covering up street names, building numbers and other identifiable city markings to try to confuse the invading Russian force.
Queues running to dozens of cars deep snake around the few functioning petrol stations.
Grocery stores are either closed or packed with people staring at grimly bare shelves that are often out of bread and simple meats and cheese.
One soldier was digging a trench on the side of a highway that the Russian tanks are expected to use to push toward Kyiv's Maidan Square and the government district.
We were hoping that our generation would be the one that lives without war, pensioner Tetyana Filonemko lamented, in the basement.
All the people can do in a war is hold on, be as one, support each other. That's all we can do.
- 'Open a corridor' -
Filonemko's basement is split into three rooms connected by a narrow corridor and lit by incandescent bulbs hanging off black wires.
One man slept on a yoga mat arranged atop a few wooden planks. A bucket stood beside him on a wooden stool.
Other men paced and some women whispered. The children seemed the least concerned in their play corner.
All I can think about is the children, said Nadezhda Tkachuk.
The 58-year-old had just walked up the stairs and popped her head out of the door for a quick breathe of fresh air -- and to try to hear how close the fighting had come.
Let them open a corridor, so that they don't shoot at people, so that we can send the little kids out, she said.
But Yulia Snitka has even more immediate concerns.
The 32-year-old's belly bulged through her clothes on the eighth month of pregnancy and she is worried about being worried.
I'm trying to stay as calm as possible to not cause a premature birth, she said.
At night, for more than an hour, there were huge explosions. I hope this all ends in a few days.