ペレ氏「侵攻停止して」　プーチン大統領に呼びかけ

【サンパウロＡＦＰ＝時事】サッカー元ブラジル代表のレジェンド、ペレ氏が１日、ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領にウクライナへの侵攻を停止するよう呼びかけた。（写真はペレ氏）
　２０２２年サッカーＷ杯カタール大会欧州予選、プレーオフ準決勝でウクライナがスコットランドと対戦する直前、ペレ氏はインスタグラムに、プーチン大統領に宛てたメッセージを投稿。
　「ウクライナは本日、少なくとも９０分間は今も祖国を襲っている悲劇を忘れようとしている」とした上で、「きょうの試合を機にお願いしたい。侵攻を停止してほしい。この継続する暴力を正当化する理由はどこにもない」と訴えた。
　「この侵攻は邪悪かつ不当であり、痛み、恐れ、恐怖、苦痛しかもたらさない。戦争は世界を分断するためだけに存在する。子どもの夢を埋め、家族を破壊し、罪のない人々を殺すミサイル発射を正当化するイデオロギーは存在しない」
　また、過去にプーチン氏と面会して「笑顔で長い時間握手」したことに触れ、「この戦争を止める力はあなたの手にある。２０１７年に最後に会ったとき、モスクワで私が握ったのと同じ手に」とつづった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/06/03-13:37）

Brazilian football legend Pele called Wednesday for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his army's invasion of Ukraine, as the war-torn country's national team was set to vie for a World Cup spot.
Today Ukraine tries to forget, at least for 90 minutes, the tragedy that still engulfs their country, Pele wrote in an open letter to Putin, posted on Instagram just before the Ukrainian men's football team faced Scotland in a World Cup playoff semi-final.
I want to use today's match as an opportunity to make a request: stop the invasion. There is absolutely no justification for this continued violence, added the three-time World Cup champion.
This conflict is wicked, unjustifiable and brings nothing but pain, fear, terror and anguish... Wars only exist to separate nations, and there's no ideology that justifies projectile missiles burying the dreams of children, ruining families and killing the innocent.
Pele recalled meeting Putin in the past and exchanging smiles accompanied by a long handshake.
The power to stop this conflict is in your hands. The same ones I shook in Moscow, at our last meeting in 2017, he wrote.
Considered by many the greatest footballer of all time, Pele had one of the most storied careers in sport, scoring more than 1,000 goals before retiring in 1977.
He has been in poor health recently, undergoing surgery last September for a colon tumor, followed by ongoing chemotherapy.
His message comes as the Ukraine conflict nears its 100th day, with fierce fighting ongoing in the nation's east, after the Russian army failed in its bid to overtake Kyiv.
The match in Glasgow is the first for the Ukrainian national team since the invasion began.
The winners will face Wales on Sunday to decide who will be the final member of Group B -- alongside England, the United States and Iran.