捕まるよりは死んでよかった　ウクライナ製鉄所で息子失った母親の心痛

【キーウＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナの首都キーウに住むイリーナ・エゴルチェンコさん（４３）は、壊滅的な被害を受けた同国南東部マリウポリにあり、ロシア軍に包囲されているアゾフスターリ製鉄所を守る戦闘員の息子アルテムさん（２２）が無事に帰還することを、２か月半にわたって祈り続けてきた。（写真はウクライナ軍の車両の前に立つ、イリーナ・エゴルチェンコさんの息子のアルテムさん。家族提供）
　だが先週、息子の訃報が届いた。
　圧倒的な絶望がエゴルチェンコさんを襲った。しかし同時に、ある種の安堵（あんど）も覚えた。「急に胸のつかえがおりた気がした。息子が拘束されたり、負傷したり、空腹にさいなまれたりしていると聞くよりは、死んだと知る方がまだいい」
　心理学者のエゴルチェンコさんは、キーウの自宅からメッセージアプリのバイバーでＡＦＰの取材に応じた。
　がっしりした体格でボクシングに打ち込んでいたアルテムさんは、３月上旬にアゾフスターリ製鉄所に入って以来、７４日間をその中で過ごした。外界とのつながりはメッセージアプリのテレグラムとＳＮＳのインスタグラムだけだった。
　母親には常に大丈夫だと言い続けてきたアルテムさんだが、友人に対してはより正直に語っていたことを、エゴルチェンコさんは知った。アルテムさんは友人に「死が迫っている、ここから出られないだろう」と書いていた。また、仲間の戦闘員が毎日のように死んでいき、ロシア軍の戦車がすでに構内に侵入しているとも伝えていた。
　エゴルチェンコさんがアルテムさんと最後に話したのは、今月７日だった。その後連絡が途絶えたため、必死で情報を求めた。
　１１日になって、製鉄所の一部が崩壊し、落下したコンクリート片の下敷きになってアルテムさんが圧死したとの知らせが届いた。
　「少なくとも息子は苦しまなかった。すべてがあっという間だった」
　ロシア軍の容赦ない砲撃を受ける広大な製鉄所から、国際機関による救助活動で民間人は全員避難したが、今も１０００人以上ものウクライナ兵が立てこもっている。
　エゴルチェンコさんが今心配するのは、取り残された戦闘員のことだ。重傷者がいるのではないか。ロシア軍の捕虜になり、拷問を受けて殺されるのではないか。
　イリーナ・ベレシチューク副首相は１２日、ウクライナ政府がロシア側に戦闘員の避難を要請したものの、拒否されたことを明らかにした。同氏は「ロシア側が認めるのは投降だけだ。だが周知の通り、わが国の戦闘員は武器を下ろすことには同意しない」と述べ、ウクライナ政府が重傷者の避難を優先しながら戦闘員を救うための特別作戦に乗り出すことも示唆した。
　２月２４日にロシア軍が侵攻して以来、マリウポリとアゾフスターリ製鉄所はウクライナによる予想外の激しい抵抗の象徴となっている。エゴルチェンコさんは言う。「母親として、大変誇りに思う。息子は良い人生を送った。国民を守ったのだ」
　激しい戦闘が続く製鉄所から、息子の遺体をいつ引き取ることができるのかは分からない。また、ひつぎに入った息子を見たくないという思いもある。「息子がもうこの世にいないと思うと、文字通り胸がえぐられる」
　「この戦争が始まらなければ息子の未来はどうなっていただろう、私の孫はどんな姿をしていただろう。もちろん、それをこの目で見てみたかったという気持ちはある」と吐露したエゴルチェンコさん。それでも「母親として恥じることは何もない」と気丈に語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/05/17-11:32）

For two-and-a-half months, Iryna Yegorchenko prayed for the safe return of her son Artem, one of the soldiers defending the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Battered by relentless Russian bombardment, the fate of the sprawling steelworks and the more than 1,000 fighters holed up inside, has gripped the global headlines.
But on Wednesday, Yegorchenko got the message: her 22-year-old son was dead.
Utterly devastated, she also felt some kind of relief -- that at least he would not be captured by the Russians. Nor would he suffer starvation or the agony of injuries that would be untreatable in such in hellish conditions.
Suddenly I felt relieved. It is easier to know that your son is dead than to know that he is in captivity, that he is injured or starving, she told AFP in an interview by Viber from her home in Kyiv.
With all civilians now evacuated from the plant as part of a UN and Red Cross rescue mission, only fighters now remain inside the sprawling steelworks, sheltering in the labyrinth of Soviet-era bunkers and tunnels from the Russians who now control the city.
And many are wounded.
Artem, a burly young man who was a keen boxer, went into the steelworks in early March, spending 74 days inside, and his only communication with the outside world was through Telegram and Instagram.
- 'At least he didn't suffer' -
They were not allowed to call. Sometimes he only put '+' when I asked if he was alive, said Yegorchenko, a 43-year-old psychologist, who also has a 20-year-old daughter and two adopted children, aged nine and six.
Artem always told her he was fine, but was more honest with his friends, she realised.
He wrote that their days were numbered, that they wouldn't get out of there, she said, her voice heavy.
He told them that his fellow soldiers were dying every single day and that Russian tanks were already inside the plant.
She last spoke to him on May 7, after which contact was cut, causing her to frantically reach out for any information about what had happened.
Then on May 11, she received the message: her son had been crushed to death by a falling concrete slab as part of the steelworks collapsed.
At least he didn't suffer. Everything happened fast, she said.
He quickly went to be with God.
For Yegorchenko, the worry now is for those soldiers left inside: the ones who are badly injured or who might end up in Russian captivity and die of torture.
Following weeks of bloody battles, soldiers from the Azov regiment and those marines who are stuck inside have been issuing desperate pleas for help on social media.
- 'Every minute costs a life' -
This week, marine commander Sergiy Volyna described conditions inside as inhumane, saying every minute costs another life.
He has appealed to the pope, world leaders and even reached out to Elon Musk, the world's richest man, pleading for immediate help -- his appeals echoed by desperate family members.
My son is in hell in Azovstal, Yevgen Sukharikov, father of one of the Azov fighters, told a news conference on Thursday, warning that leaving them to die would end in a massacre.
Either we take risks (to save them), or the whole world will watch how they are killed there.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday that Kyiv's appeals to Moscow for their evacuation had been turned down.
They offer only surrender. As you know, our guys won't agree to lay down their arms, she said, indicating Kyiv would mount a special operation to save them, which would prioritise the evacuation of the seriously injured.
Mariupol and Azovstal in particular have become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded on February 24, and for Yegorchenko, the fact that her son died defending Ukraine is a source of huge pride.
As a mum, I'm very proud. He lived a good life, he protected his people, she said.
He has earned his place in paradise.
She has no idea when they will be able to retrieve his body from the steelworks where the brutal fighting rages on. But she also doesn't want to see her son in a coffin.
It hurts me physically to think that he is no longer with us, she breathed.
Of course, I would have very much liked to see what his future would have been like if this war hadn't started, how my grandchildren would have looked.
As a mother, I have nothing to be ashamed of.