塹壕は前線兵士の生命線　ウクライナ東部

【バルビンコベＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナ東部ドンバス地方のバルビンコベは侵攻を続けるロシア軍の戦列から５キロしか離れていない。検問所ではウクライナ兵６人が警備に当たっており、自分たちが毎日掘り続けている塹壕（ざんごう）にすぐに飛び込める態勢を維持している。（写真はウクライナ・バルビンコベ付近の検問所で警備に当たるワシルさん（右）とデニスさん親子）
　息子のデニスさん（２２）と共に前線に配属されたワシルさん（５１）は「さもなければ死んでしまう」と話した。
　ウクライナ側の集中砲火が終わると、遠くでごう音が響きロシア側の反撃が始まる。
　丘の上から発射されたロシアの砲弾が荒地に着弾した。
　イーホルさん（３４）は険しい顔で「（ロシア軍は）今は照準を調整しており、数分かかる。その後は（砲弾が）ここや町に降り注ぐ」と話した。
　壕の中で、６人の兵士は身を寄せ合い、警備の順番の合間に睡眠を取ろうと努めていた。
　だが、ドンバス地方は夜の方が昼よりも過酷だ。
　第９３旅団のイリーナ・リバコワ報道官によると、ロシア軍は「心理戦のために」夕暮れを待って最も威力のある兵器を使うという。
　別の場所では、全長３メートルの円筒状の物体が地面に突き刺さっていた。ロシアの弾道ミサイル「トーチカ」だ。
　先週には、現在ウクライナ軍の基地として使われている廃校の近くにトーチカが着弾し、直径約１５メートルの穴が残された。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/27-10:06）

In the chaos of the battle for Barinkove on Ukraine's eastern front, the country's best-known singer, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, appears in jeans and a bulletproof vest.
A soldier rushes up to the rockstar from the band Okean Elzy for a selfie.
We came to raise morale, to see the guys. Maybe I will sing something to them, the 46-year-old told AFP, guitar in hand.
Their mood is great, he said. I mean, they're not happy to be here of course, but they're very focused and determined and ready to win.
That's why we're here, to (help them) understand that everything will be alright.
But after two months under Russian fire on this unforgiving frontline, it can be hard to sustain optimism.
While soldiers have been trying to blunt the Kremlin's assault on the Donbas region, the offensive is now concentrated here.
In terms of morale, the situation is complicated. It's far from rosy, Iryna Rybakova, press officer of the 93rd brigade, told AFP.
Of course, we were prepared for this war, especially the professional army, but for those who've been recruited, it's more complicated, the soldier said.
- Trench warfare -
At the entrance to Barinkove, around five kilometres (three miles) from the Russian lines, six Ukrainian soldiers hold a checkpoint. They remain ready at any moment to dive into their trench, which they dig every day with a shovel.
Otherwise, we're dead, said Vasyl, 51, who serves on the frontline with his son Denys, 22.
After a Ukrainian barrage, a dull roar signals the Russian retaliation.
A Russian shell, fired from a hill, thuds into a field.
They're just adjusting now -- it will take a few minutes, then (the shells) will fall all over us and the town, warned Ygor, a 34-year-old soldier, with a grimace.
Nearby, an iron cooking pot sits on a makeshift stove, with carrots, potatoes and onions bobbing at the top of a modest broth.
Locals stepped up to supply the soldiers with everything, they say, except cigarettes.
And officially, not a drop of alcohol can be consumed on the front.
In a concealed bunker, six soldiers huddled on palettes, trying to sleep between their guard shifts.
But in the Donbas, the night is even worse than the day.
Russia's army chooses nightfall to unleash its most powerful firepower for psychological warfare, Rybakova, the 93rd brigade's spokeswoman, said as she surveyed the scene on the edge of a road.
A three-metre-long cylinder lies in a field -- a Tochka, an immense Soviet-era ballistic missile.
The fearsome weapon exploded on Friday night near an abandoned school now used as a military base, leaving behind a crater with a diameter of about 15 metres (49 feet).
- 'Like a chessboard' -
Russia on Friday said it wanted total control over east and south Ukraine to create a corridor to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Izyum and Kreminna are among the places to have fallen to Russia's advance in recent weeks, while Ukrainian forces focus on containment.
We have a very fragmented frontline, which doesn't follow a river, a road or a motorway. Now we take a village, they take one, we take one, like on a chessboard, the 93rd brigade press officer said.
All of the region's major roads have been altered or damaged to slow the enemy's arrival.
The obstacles include pieces of railway line, clumps of trees, sprawling lines of defensive trenches, exploded bridges and concrete squares left on the roads to hold mines lying in wait for Russian tanks.
The soldiers who spoke with AFP acknowledged that losses have been high during the battle for the Donbas, although the local military administration refused to provide a figure.
When asked about casualties, one soldier in the 25th brigade hurled insults at the enemy before breaking down in tears.
His unit has been very badly hit by the last three weeks of fighting, he said.
I lost a very good comrade, his wife is due to give birth in a few days -- we preferred not to say anything.