マンホールに息子の遺体、泣き崩れる母親　ロシア軍撤退後の爪痕

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナの首都キーウ近郊にある破壊されたガソリンスタンドの裏で、女性が泣き崩れた。のぞき込んだマンホールの中に、２３歳の息子ともう一人別の男性の遺体があるのを目にした直後のことだった。「私の坊や」と、女性の悲痛な声が響いた。（写真は資料写真）
　ウクライナ北部からロシア軍が撤退して以来、ウクライナ当局は後に残された惨状の確認に追われている。
　ＡＦＰ取材班は１０日、首都キーウから西に１５キロ離れたブゾワ村付近のガソリンスタンドのマンホール内で、男性２人の遺体を目にした。
　男性は水に漬かっており、軍の寝具が一部を覆っていた。しかし、特徴のある靴を見た女性は、わが子と確信した。
　悲しみに打ちひしがれた女性は、マンホールの縁から動こうとしなかった。その場から離れるよう促されても、「もう少しの間、あの子を見せて」「私はどこにも行かない」と拒み、涙を流した。
　村の関係者によると、マンホールで見つかった２人は予備役である国民防衛隊の隊員で、先月１６日から行方不明になっていた。死因は現時点では不明だが、１人は頭部から出血していた。
　マンホールから水がくみ出されると、警察は周囲に規制線を張り、警官１人が内部に入った。
　細いロープがくくり付けられた最初の遺体が１０人がかりで引き揚げられた。１人目の男性よりも体重が軽かった女性の息子の遺体は、９人の力で収容された。
　息子の遺体が地面に横たえられると、女性は規制線をくぐって駆け寄った。「見せて」「私は見たい」と懇願する母親を、男性４人が制止した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/12-13:05）

A Ukrainian mother fell to her knees, clawing the earth behind a razed petrol station.
She had just peered inside a manhole and found the corpse of her adult son, sharing the pit with another man.
My little son, she wailed into the gaping chamber.
His body was warped by water, shrouded in sediment and eclipsed by an army sleeping mat.
But she recognised him by his distinctive footwear and, devastated by grief, refused to quit the crumbling lip of the shaft.
Let me see him for a while, she begged to a woman who was trying to pull her away.
I won't leave, she wept, hugging the ground where her son's remains had been dumped out of sight.
Nearby, at the roadside, sat the remains of two tanks, mangled by combat.
One was scorched to black and orange, the other was painted with a white V, the insignia of Russian invading forces, who withdrew from this region last week.
- Assessing the damage -
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin called off his northern offensive to capture the capital of Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities have had to take stock of what they left behind.
The most shocking images so far emerged from the commuter town of Bucha, occupied for more than a month. It is here that Ukraine alleges Russian troops committed war crimes by shooting civilians in the street.
The Kremlin has denied any hand in the slayings, denouncing photos of the dead as fakery.
But other villages, towns and roads on the north-west flank of Kyiv have their own stories to tell.
On Sunday, AFP saw the remains of two men -- who seemed to be wearing civilian and military clothing -- inside a shaft behind a motorway service station 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of the capital, near the village of Buzova.
Village official Lyudmyla Zakabluk said both were members of Ukraine's Territorial Defence Forces (TDF), a reserve faction of Ukraine's armed forces. They had been missing since March 16.
The distraught mother was also named Lyudmyla, she said, and her son Yevhenii, was only 23 years old.
My heart is just heavy, said 60 year-old Zakabluk. This is a horror.
How is it possible to do such things?
The summary execution of prisoners of war is forbidden under the Geneva Conventions.
Although the cause of death of the two men was not immediately apparent, the head of one of the men was streaked with blood.
- Grief in springtime -
Once a tanker had siphoned water out from the bottom of the manhole, police ringed it off with crime-scene tape and one man plunged inside.
A slim, white rope was tied to each body in turn. It took 10 men to haul up the first one. Nine pull up Lyudmyla's son, the lighter of the two.
A bumblebee buzzed around the melted metal of one of the devastated tanks. Tiny birds flew in and out of the looted grocery shop of the petrol station forecourt.
But the sounds of the mother's grief cut over everything.
Once her son was laid out in the open, Lyudmyla ducked under the tape, rushing over to his body.
Let me look, she pleaded. I want to look.
It took four men to hold her back.