「刑務所よりひどい」監禁生活 ロシアから解放された村

【ヤヒドネ（ウクライナ）ＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアがウクライナに侵攻した直後の昨年２月。ロシア軍に占領された首都キーウ北郊のヤヒドネ村では、上は９３歳から下は生後６週間まで、ほぼ全住民に当たる３６７人が２７日間にわたり学校の地下室に監禁された。（写真は村民が監禁された学校の地下室を出るゼレンスキー大統領）
　窓もない２００平方メートル足らずの空間での生活を「刑務所よりもひどい」と村人の一人は振り返る。地下室での生活で１１人が死亡した。
　ウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は３日、解放から１年に合わせて、ロベルト・ハーベック独副首相と共にヤヒドネを訪問した。
　この村に「強制収容所」を設置したロシア軍を絶対に許さないと非難するとともに、ウラジーミル・プーチン大統領には、「残りの人生をトイレ用バケツしかない暗い地下室で過ごしてもらいたい」と述べた。
　ＡＦＰの取材に応じた村人の一人、イワン・ポリフイさん（６３）は、ロシア軍に「地下室に連れて行く。後でまた別の場所に移動する」と言われた。
　地下室には、テーブルの代わりになるような椅子が数脚と板があるだけで、ベッドやマットレスはなく、床に寝転がるか、座るしかなかったという。
　「トイレに行くことしか許されず、刑務所よりひどい状態だった」と話す。
　ポリフイさんの息子、ワレリーさん（３８）は「ロシア兵が機関銃を持って家に入って来て、地下室に押し込められた」と話す。「身の回りのものを５分で用意しろと言われた」
　ポリフイさんによると、狭い地下室の中で酸欠で亡くなった人も複数いる。高齢者は気を失い、息を引き取ったという。
　だが、遺体の埋葬もすぐには認められなかった。
　「午前中に誰かが亡くなると、（ロシア兵に）頼んで午後には外に運び出すことができた」とポリフイさんは語った。しかし、亡くなったのが夕方の場合は「遺体は地下室に安置されたままで、子どもたちがその周りを歩き回っていた」という。
　地下室の壁やドアには、亡くなった人の名前と日付が刻まれていた。
　■解放された時のことは一生忘れない
　ワレンチナと名乗る女性（６０）は、地下室の中は息苦しかったと話した。人が歩くたびにほこりが舞った。人の温かい息で結露ができたという。
　誰もが体調を崩した。発熱した人も多く、水痘（水ぼうそう）になる子どももいた。
　「料理や食事をする場所もなく、路上に調理場を作った」と話した。
　約１か月後にロシア軍はキーウ近郊から撤退し、ヤヒドネは２０２２年３月３０日に解放された。
　ウクライナ軍がやってきた時は、みんなまだ地下室にいたとワレリーさんは言う。「村にいるのが誰だか分からないので、みんな外に出るのを怖がっていた」
　ワレリーさんは解放されたときのことを一生忘れない。ウクライナ兵を見た時は「言葉にできないほどうれしかった」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/04/05-18:32）

They spent nearly a month crammed in the basement of a local school, forced out of their homes by invading Russian troops and held in conditions described as worse than prison.
Soon after the invasion in February last year, the Russians forced 367 people -- nearly the entire population of the village of Yagidne north of Kyiv -- into a basement with no windows measuring less than 200 square metres.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Ukraine would never forgive Russians for setting up a concentration camp in Yagidne a year ago.
The villagers, including elderly people and around fifty children were kept in the basement for 27 days.
The youngest prisoner was six weeks old; the oldest 93.
Eleven of the villagers died during the ordeal.
One of the survivors, Ivan Polgui, said the Russians did not explain anything when they arrived.
They brought us to the basement and said they would take us somewhere else later, Polgui, 63, told AFP.
We could only go to the toilet. It was worse than in prison, he added.
The basement had only a few chairs and planks that served as makeshift tables. There were no beds or mattresses, leaving people to sleep on the floor or sitting up.
- 'Animals' -
Polgui and others spoke to AFP as Zelensky and German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck travelled to the village located a two-hour drive north of the capital to mark the one-year anniversary of the liberation of the settlement from Russian troops.
They came into houses with machine guns and forced everyone to the basement, said Valeriy Polgui, the 38-year-old son of Ivan Polgui.
They gave us five minutes to gather everything we needed.
Fellow survivor, 60-year-old Valentina, said there was wild fear when the Russians came.
They knocked on our door and broke it down. This fear did not leave me the whole time we were here and for a month afterwards, said Valentina, who declined to give her family name.
Speaking in Yagidne, Zelensky said he hoped that Russian President Vladimir Putin would spend the rest of his life in a dark basement with a bucket for a toilet.
Addressing Ukrainians in the evening, the president called the Russian troops animals, saying they set up a command post in the Yagidne school and used the civilians in the basement as a human shield.
Valery Polgui said some people died from lack of oxygen in the small cellar.
At first it was cold here, but then there were more people and there was not enough oxygen, he said.
He added that elderly people lost consciousness from the lack of oxygen, lost their mind and died.
They were not allowed to immediately bury their dead.
If a person died in the morning, we could ask to take them outside in the afternoon. To put them in the boiler room, Ivan Polgui said.
And if somebody died in the evening, the corpses would lie there and children would walk around them.
Their names with the date of death were inscribed on a wall and door of the basement by the others.
- 'Afraid to come out' -
Valentina said it was difficult to breathe in the basement.
People were walking, kicking up dust, she said, adding that condensation was dripping down from the warmth of their breath.
She said that people were getting ill, many people had fever and there were cases of chickenpox.
There was no place to cook or eat. We organised a kitchen on the street, Valentina said.
After about a month, Russian forces withdrew from the suburbs of Kyiv.
Yagidne, which is located in the northern region of Chernigiv, was liberated on March 30, 2022.
Valery Polgui said they were still in the basement when Ukrainian forces arrived.
All the people were afraid to come out because they did not know who was there, he said.
He said he would remember their liberation for the rest of his life.
We were incredibly happy to see them, he added.