ロシア国境付近に新たな集団墓地か ウクライナが調査へ

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシア国境に近いウクライナ東部ハルキウ州コザチャロパニ郊外で、新たな集団墓地とみられるものが見つかった。兵士や地元当局が２６日、明らかにした。（写真はコザチャロパニ郊外で、集団墓地が見つかったとされる養鶏場に残された、ロシア軍服を着た人形）
　発見現場は、ロシアとの国境から約２キロ離れた場所にある、砲撃で破壊され打ち捨てられた養鶏場。遺体の数は９０～１００体とされるが、その根拠は示されていない。現場にはまだ地雷除去班が到着しておらず、掘り起こし作業は始まっていない。安全が確保でき次第、科学捜査班が今週中に派遣される見通し。
　この場に埋められているのが誰であろうと、埋葬時に誰がここにいたかは明白だ。施設の至る所にロシア軍の占拠の跡が残っているからだ。ウクライナ軍によると養鶏場に拠点を置いていたのは、ジョージアからの独立をロシアに承認された「アブハジア共和国」出身者から成る部隊だったという。
　ハルキウ州では、ウクライナ軍がロシア軍から奪還したイジューム郊外でも集団墓地が見つかっていた。ウクライナ当局はイジュームで、ロシア軍の占領下で死亡した４４７人の遺体を発見。うち４２５人は子ども５人を含む一般市民で、残る２２人がウクライナ兵だった。オレグ・シネグボウ州知事によると、大半は暴力による死亡の痕跡が見られ、３０体には拷問の痕があった。
　ウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は２５日、米ＣＢＳニュースに対し、「数百人が埋葬されている大規模な集団墓地２か所」を発見したと語ったが、そのうちの一つがコザチャロパニのものだったかは不明。
　養鶏場に埋葬されている遺体の身元は不明だが、現場を警備するウクライナ兵はＡＦＰに対し、ロシアとウクライナ両軍の兵士と一般市民の遺体が見つかるだろうとの見解を示した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/09/27-13:06）

Ukraine's latest suspected mass burial site is in a shell-damaged and abandoned industrial chicken farm, on a hill near the Russian border strewn with the debris of battle.
It is not known how many bodies lie there -- troops and officials speak of 90 to 100 without saying how they know -- but the signs of recent violence lie in rubble all around.
Parts of the turret of a destroyed tank have been tossed in the air and crashed through the shrapnel-shredded roof of a hangar-like shed, crushing empty poultry cages below.
A cold wind blows through the dust from shattered cement bricks and the handful of Ukrainian troops on guard wince occasionally when one of their own tanks lobs a shell towards Russia.
De-mining teams have not yet arrived at the site outside Kozacha Lopan, around two kilometres (just over a mile) from the border, and the potential mass grave has yet to be disturbed.
I was told by the soldiers who came to our village that they saw a burial place of soldiers, but they didn't specify the number, said Lyudmyla Vakulenko, head of the Kozacha Lopan local administration.
They said a specialised unit would look into it, she added.
The forensic teams are expected later this week, once the area is deemed safe for work. On Monday, soldiers moved gingerly, avoiding unpaved areas, wary of mines and unexploded shells.
- Unexploded shells -
But reports of the potential mass burial will confirm the worst fears of Ukrainians, still shocked by the discovery of a makeshift forest cemetery further south in recaptured Izyum.
There, Ukrainian investigation teams found what they said were 447 bodies buried during the Russian occupation of the area: 425 civilians, including five children, and 22 Ukrainian servicemen.
The Kharkiv regional governor, Oleg Synegubov, said that most of the Izyum bodies showed signs of a violent death and that 30 of the victims appeared to have been tortured beforehand.
On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky told CBS News that Ukraine had found two more mass graves, big graves with hundreds of people, but it was not clear if he was referring to Kozacha Lopan.
It is not yet known whose bodies lie in the chicken plant. Soldiers guarding the complex told AFP they expected to find the corpses of both Russian and Ukrainian troops and local civilians.
But Vakulenko says the officer who told her of the find said the military thinks it is a grave for soldiers, and that she has received another clue as to the soldiers' potential identity.
On April 22, she says, a Ukrainian force from the 72nd Mechanised Brigade counterattacked Russian forces dug in near the chicken plant, but were beaten back with heavy casualties.
The area was finally liberated by Ukrainian forces this month, and over the weekend Vakulenko -- who runs the civil administration in the border area north of the city of Kharkiv -- got a call.
Yes, there was a phone call on the community hotline from a woman named Olena. I don't know if she's a relative or a friend, just 'Olena', Vakulenko told AFP.
She left her phone number said that some of her relatives or friends were killed on April 22 near the village of Kozacha Lopan.
She asked, 'Can I get some official information?' And we answered: 'So far, no. Until the exhumation is carried out. Until this unit does its work and tells us what happened'.
- Under-floor bunker -
Whoever is buried under the chicken plant, it seems clear who was there when the burials took place. The hangars and outhouses are full of the signs of Russian occupation.
Deep trenches have been dug under the floors of some of the sheds, each the size of the tank that would have squatted there under the cover of the cavernous, metal-roofed poultry barns.
A Russian tank crewman's leather helmet hung on a fence post, and a Russian-issue military jacket lay in the mud.
Ukrainian forces said the unit based there was recruited from Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia under Russian occupation.
In the farm's mechanical workshop, a bunker has been dug under the concrete floor, and the former residents have built a makeshift gym with a concrete barbell and a punching bag made of car tyres.
A shell hole has ripped through one corner of the roof, allowing a shaft of sunlight into the gloom.