戦闘激化のウクライナ東部バフムート 孤立する老夫婦

【バフムートＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシア軍の砲撃に何か月もさらされ、停電と断水が続くウクライナ東部の前線地域。かつて７万人が暮らし、ワインや岩塩の産地として知られたドネツク州バフムートでは、ウクライナ軍が５月から懸命にロシアの侵攻を食い止めている。（写真はバフムートの自宅で肺がんを患う夫ミコラさんに付き添うオレクサンドラさん）
　鉄筋の集合住宅は廃虚と化し、並木道は静まり返っている。市中心部を流れるバフムートカ川の橋は、ロシア軍の前進を阻むため落とされた。敵の猛攻が迫る川の東岸では、住民の孤立が深まりつつある。
　西岸の市街地に行くには、砕けたコンクリート片の上に渡された板を渡って濁流を越えなければならない。間近で砲撃が行われる中、人々は年金を受け取ったり、食料や水を調達したりするために川の向こうを目指す。
　だが、オレクサンドラ・ピリペンコさん（６７）にとって、西岸は遠過ぎる。肺がんを患う夫のミコラさん（６６）は、地下室に避難して砲撃から身を守るのがやっとの病状で、不安定な橋を渡るどころではない。
　教会と隣り合わせの自宅周辺には甘いブドウが食べきれないほど実り、バケツに山と積まれたクルミもある。一方、ジャガイモやタマネギといった日常的な食材は不足し、電気もなければ水道も使えない。しかも、冬と激戦は容赦なく町に忍び寄っている。
　「まきを手に入れるにはどうすればいいのか」。オレクサンドラさんはＡＦＰ取材班に、ためらいがちに切り出した。窮状を訴えるうち、感極まって涙があふれた。「ここにいても手に入らない。配達してもらうお金がないから」
　「３か月間、ガスも電気も来ない。水もない。雨水をためて調理に使っている。それ以外にどうやって水を確保できるというの」
　子どもや孫たちは町を離れて避難したが、２人は身動きが取れずにいる。たとえ戦火を免れたとしても、ミコラさんはこの冬を越せないかもしれない。
　子どもたちからは「覚悟を決めろと言われた」とオレクサンドラさん。「彼らも、他には何も言えなかったのだろう。泣くときは外に出ている。夫に見られないように」
　「私たちには何もできない。この爆発音にも、もう耐えられない。いつ終わるの」
　元家具職人のミコラさんは、「砲撃が始まると地下室に駆け込むんだ」と教えてくれた。そんな夫を見つめるオレクサンドラさんの目には、悲しみが満ちていた。「この人はもう、地下室に避難することさえできない」
　質素な家の中は、イコン（聖像画）が幾つも飾られ、まだ暖かかった。だが、爆弾で損傷した屋根から雨漏りしており、じめじめしていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/14-16:26）

This week's Russian missile attacks on power plants threaten cities across Ukraine with blackouts, but many frontline communities have been under shellfire and without power or water for months.
The wine-making and salt-mining town of Bakhmut, in the eastern region of Donetsk, is still grimly defended by Ukrainian forces, but its desperate residents have been within range of Russian guns since May.
Once home to 70,000 people, Bakhmut's tree-lined main streets are quiet and its concrete housing blocks are shell-scarred ruins. The residents on the east bank of the Bakhmutka river are increasingly isolated.
Ukrainian sappers demolished the bridge linking the exposed east bank to the town centre on the west side to stall any Russian advance.
But this has left civilians in the east side reliant on a muddy gangplank thrown down between murky waters and shattered concrete.
They cross to claim pensions or fetch water and basic foodstuffs, even as artillery fire erupts nearby.
The crossing is too daunting for Oleksandra Pylypenko, 67, who knows her husband Mykola -- sick with cancer -- can barely make it to their cellar to shelter from shelling, never mind cross the rickety bridge.
- Treacherous passage -
There are more sweet purple grapes than they will be able to eat hanging from the vines around their small bungalow, in the shadow of the blue-walled wooden Church of St Mykola.
And they have buckets of walnuts.
But they lack basics like potatoes and onions -- and services, like power and running water -- even as winter and Ukraine's rolling battle with Russian forces both creep inexorably towards the town.
Firewood. How can I get it? There is no way to get it here. I don't have money to pay for a delivery, she told AFP, as she recounted her plight, haltingly at first and then in a flood of tears and emotion.
No gas, no electricity for three months, no water. Rainwater. I collect rainwater and use it cook. How else can I get water?
There was no shortage of rain on Monday.
The dirt roads plied by military convoys were turned to mud and the steep banks of the Bakhmutka that lead down to the makeshift pontoon more slick and treacherous than ever.
The couple is trapped, their children and grandchildren have fled, and 66-year-old Mykola might not make it through the winter, even if the war spares him.
They said to prepare myself, that's it. What else could they say? I go outside and cry so that he doesn't see me, Oleksandra said.
You see? Now it's getting dark. What can we do? Nothing. We can't do anything. And these explosions, we can't stand them. When will it be over?
Mykola, a former furniture factory worker stricken with lung cancer, said: When the shelling starts, we run to the basement.
But Oleksandra looked on with pity: And now he can't even make it to the basement.
The couple's modest home, still warm but damp and leaking from the shrapnel damaged roof, is decorated with religious icons and stands by an impressive church.
But even the sacred has not been spared in the grinding battle for Bakhmut.
The water fountain before St Mykola's door is padded and wrapped in polythene to protect it from blasts and the windows are boarded up, but the bell tower has been punctured by a shell and the walls scarred by cluster bombs.
Church housekeeper Valeriy, 69, takes off his felt hat to show the shrapnel hole that was pierced through it as it hung on a hook in his work area.
Residents are cautious of complaining about the conduct of the war. Some would not give their full names to reporters, speaking of the fear of interrogation or arrest by agents of unnamed officialdom.
- Heavy guns -
But, with a Russian force reputedly led by Wagner company mercenaries seizing villages near the southern approach to Bakhmut, the fighting is intensifying and exchanges of artillery fire erupt every day.
I have no idea who is shelling, said 66-year-old Gennady, as he rode back from the broken bridge with a metal jerry can of drinking water strapped to the back of his bike.
From here, from there, from over there. Automatic weapons, heavy machine guns. You never know what they'll shoot next, he told AFP, heading home to his adult son, his wife having fled town.
She was hysterical, she was trembling, he explained.
Whatever happens, happens. I go to bed and I sleep. I don't hide in the basement. My neighbour's place was hit by shelling. The guest house, the closet, the terrace...