妻失った男性「世界に知ってほしい」 家族引き裂くロシアのミサイル

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】「妻はきっと天国にいて、最高の人生だったことを願っている」。ウクライナの首都キエフ西方の都市ジトーミルで１日夜、ミサイル攻撃で妻を失ったオレグ・ルベクさん（３２）は涙で声を詰まらせ、侵攻したロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領への憎しみで泣き腫らした。そして、自分の身に起きたことを「世界に知ってほしい」と訴えた。（写真はオレグ・ルベクさん）
　技術者のルベクさんは、ジトーミルの自宅の居間で１歳半の娘と遊んでいた１日午後１０時ごろ、１発目のミサイルが自宅付近に着弾した。２発目は自宅の裏に落ちた。深さ５メートルの穴が開き、濁った水がたまった現場は、ルベクさん宅のがれきで埋め尽くされている。
　「妻の名前はカティアだった。彼女が寝室に入るのを見た１分後には、もう何もなかった」とルベクさんはＡＦＰに語った。
　すすり泣き、謝罪の言葉を口にしたルベクさんは、「全世界に私に起きたことを聞いてほしい」と声を絞り出した。
　さらに、がれきの山を指さしながら、「娘と居た場所だ。見ての通り、もはや家ではなく、部屋でさえもない。恐らく地獄かもしれない」と続けた。
　２発目の爆発でがれきの下敷きになったルベクさんは、指先で探り当てた携帯電話のライトをつけ、娘を発見した。
　「娘は動いていなかった。私にとっての全ての世界が崩れ去ったと思ったものの、娘の手を握ったところ、彼女は泣き始めた。人生の中で最も美しい音だった」とその瞬間を振り返った。
　しかし、カティアさんはがれきの下敷きになっていた。ルベクさんは素手で彼女を掘り出したが、恐れていた通り、亡きがらとなっていた。
　酷寒の中、もう終わりにしようと促す父親の制止を振り切るように、「寒くない。ただ全世界に何が起きたのか知ってほしいだけだ」とルベクさんは訴え、プーチン大統領に怒りの矛先を向けた。
　「彼には死んでほしい。地獄の業火の中で永遠に焼かれればいい」
　ジトーミルの当局者によると、１日夜の攻撃で少なくとも３人が死亡、子ども数人を含む２０人以上が負傷した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/03/04-13:29）

Oleg Rubak wept for love of his wife Katia, crushed in the rubble of his family home, and for hatred of Vladimir Putin, whom he blames for the missile strike that killed her.
The 32-year-old engineer was playing with his baby daughter in the living room of the couple's brick-and-timber house in Zhytomyr, 150 kilometres (93 miles) west of Kyiv.
On Tuesday night at around 10:00 pm in the Ukrainian crossroads town, home to a military garrison, a first missile struck near the family home.
A second crashed down behind the building, tearing a five-metre-deep crater, now full of dirty water and the smashed remnants of Rubak's house.
Her name was Katia. She was 29 years old. One minute I saw her going into the bedroom, a minute later there was nothing, Rubak told AFP, standing by the ruins in jogging bottoms and a fleece.
I hope she's in heaven and all is perfect for her.
He sobbed, apologised, and continued: I want the whole world to hear my story.
He points out a pile of rubble among the others.
That's where I was with our one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. But you can see, it's no longer a house, it's not even a room, it's... maybe it's hell, he said.
When the second blast struck, Rubak was thrown under debris as a terrifying sound followed by the icy winter night ripped into his home.
Reaching out with his fingertips he found his mobile phone, turned on the torch, and found his daughter.
- Maybe it's hell? -
She wasn't moving, and my whole world fell in, but I took her hand and she started to cry. It was the most beautiful sound I'd heard in my life, he said.
Katia, however, was still under bricks and ceiling beams. Oleg desperately dug her out with his bare hands, he said, showing the red welts and scars.
He found her corpse, as he had feared. The first explosion had left her with no chance. Katia was a housewife. She loved two things, me and our daughter.
Rubak's father, battling his own grief, tries to comfort him, urging him to wrap up against the bitter cold, but the angry son stood straight once again, trying to focus.
I have to stay strong. I'm not cold. I just want the whole world to know what happened, he said, turning his fury on Putin, Russia's president.
Moscow's week-old invasion of Ukraine has been marked by missile bombardments that ended up hitting civilian homes and infrastructure -- and ending civilian lives.
I want him dead, Oleg said of Putin. Let him roast in hell for all eternity.
According to Zhytomyr officials, Tuesday night's bombings killed at least three people and wounded 20 more, including several young children.
In the city centre on Wednesday, dozens of residents were cleaning up the remains of a wrecked market, just opposite the city's large military academy.
Among them, 28-year-old Katarina Chternova, does not hide her fear, but local solidarity reassures her.
We are all together, we help each other, she told AFP. Because this is our land, and we want to save it... we don't give up.
Rubak, on the other hand, is more pessimistic in the face of the Russian advance. In Zhytomyr, he says, many people would like to leave, but today, no one knows where to go.