穀倉地帯の農村に食品配給の列 ウクライナ東部

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】世界の穀倉地帯といわれるウクライナの農村で、食料を求める行列ができていた。ロシア軍との戦闘の前線となっている東部にある村レブヤジェでの光景だ。（写真はレブヤジェで、国連（ＵＮ）世界食糧計画（ＷＦＰ）の配給を受け取った村人）
　ウクライナ部隊は第２の都市ハルキウへと続くルートの防衛に力を尽くし、ロシア軍がこの村に進軍することはなかった。それでもウクライナ軍がロシア軍を押し返すまで、村は何度か砲撃を受けた。
　ＷＦＰの配給を受けるために、村の商店に並んでいた住民のガリーナ・ミハイロウナさん（７５）は「ひどい、ひどい。言葉にはできません」と言った。道路を挟んだ文化センターの建物には、砲弾による穴がぽっかりと開いている。
　村人が集まる中、多連装ロケット砲を搭載したウクライナ軍のトラックが狭い道を走り抜け、時折、砲弾の音が鳴り響く。
　村は、ドネツ川の下流に位置する。ロシア軍は民間のインフラを標的にしていると言われているが、先日、上流のダムがロシア軍のミサイル攻撃を受けた。村のすぐ近くには、世界中で食用油の原料とされているヒマワリの畑が広がっている。
　村で配られたＷＦＰの箱には１人の１か月分の食料として、米、油、パスタ、豆や缶詰など１２キロ分が入っていた。
　高齢者が運ぶには重いが、近所の人々が手伝い、食料が入った箱は手押し車や自転車に積まれていった。
　支援物資を受け取るためにやって来た村人たちがうれしそうにあいさつを交わし、子どもや犬もはしゃいでいる。ほんの数時間でも現実の問題を忘れられそうなひと時だった。
　「６か月も電気が通ってない。ガスは３か月だ。でも、私たちはどうにかやっていきますよ」と村人の一人は言った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/09/27-13:01）

Ukraine's farmland is famed for its rich black soil and considered a breadbasket for the world, but on Thursday, after months of war, residents of a frontline farming village were queueing for food.
The Russian invasion force that crossed the border on February 24 did not quite reach little Lebyazhe, as Ukrainian troops scrambled to defend routes to the country's second city, Kharkiv.
But the quiet rural community, sometimes hit by shelling, found itself embroiled in the ensuing conflict, until this month's lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive drove the invader back.
It's been terrible, terrible. I can't even describe it, said 75-year-old Galina Mykhailivna, hunkered down while waiting for food rations in front of a village cultural centre with a gaping shell hole in the facade.
It's tragic, they destroyed the whole village, she declared, exaggerating in her distress as most of the houses remain standing, although signs of war are everywhere.
It was so nice before, now it's ruined, she said.
As the residents gathered, a Ukrainian army truck-mounted multiple rocket launcher rumbled through the narrow lanes of the village, while artillery detonations boomed from time to time.
- Six months without power -
Ominously, Lebyazhe lies downstream from a major dam on the Siversky Donets river damaged this week by a Russian missile, amid signs Moscow is targeting civilian infrastructure.
Its hinterland boasts vast swathes of sunflower fields -- a global source of cooking oil -- and homes in the village itself typically keep productive vegetable patches, goats and ducks.
But on Thursday, community leader Olexander Nesmiyan -- the tallest man in the village -- was overseeing the distribution of food parcels.
Each box, emblazoned with the logo of the UN World Food Programme, holds 12 kilos (26 pounds) of basic foodstuffs -- rice, oil, pasta, canned beans and canned meat -- enough to feed one person for one month.
It was a weighty burden for some of the elderly villagers to carry, but neighbours helped out. Boxes were loaded into wheelbarrows and strapped to bikes, as dogs and children enjoyed playing among the crowd.
The gathering is cheerful, a trip out to the village store and a chance to greet neighbours, perhaps to forget about Lebyazhe's other problems for a few hours.
Yes, six months without electricity. And now already three months without gas, but we'll make it somehow, said 65-year-old Lyubov Polushkyna.