夢は兵士になること 「戦争ごっこ」で遊ぶウクライナの子どもたち
ロシアによるウクライナ侵攻が始まって1年以上がたち、戦争はウクライナの子どもたちの遊びや世界観に染み込み、一生消えることのない影響を与えている。
子どもサイズの戦闘服と、見るからに大き過ぎる使い込まれたヘルメットを身に着け、プラスチックの銃を持ったマクシム・ムドラク君(10)は「戦争ごっこが大好き。大きくなったら本物の戦争で英雄になりたい」と話した。
侵攻開始直後の2022年3月4日、マクシム君の父親オレクシーさん(当時40)は、従軍はしていなかったものの志願兵部隊に物資を届けに行き、命を落とした。
キーウ近郊のストヤンカでマクシム君と暮らす祖母のバレンティナさん(72)によると、侵攻が始まり父親を失うと、マクシム君は戦争に強い興味を示すようになった。
バレンティナさんは「父親の死が途方もない影響を与えた。あの子は常に父親のことを考えている。お墓に行って泣いていることもある」と話す。
マクシム君は、兵士になることが父親の記憶をとどめる手段だと言う。父親を奪った戦争の責任の所在についてもはっきりとした考えを持っており、「僕はロシア人を最大の敵と見なす」と語った。
侵攻は甚大な破壊行為と苦悩をウクライナにもたらした。子どもたちは愛する人を亡くし、学校や家を失い、恐怖にさらされた。
国連の統計によると、侵攻で死亡した子どもは500人を上回る。
■「絶対仕返ししたい」
ロシアに対しては同情の余地はない。子どもたちにそう教えることが責務と考える親もいる。
看護師のイリーナ・コワレンコさん(33)は侵攻以来、ロシア人には戦争の連帯責任があり、善良なロシア人はその善良さを行動で示さなければならないのだとわが子に教えてきた。
イリーナさんの娘ソフィヤちゃん(6)は「ロシア人がロシアから爆弾を撃ってくるとお母さんから聞いた」と話した。
また、ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領についても「お母さんからとても悪い人だと聞いた。子どもの頃は猫や犬をたたいていて、大きくなったら人にもそうするようになったって」
子どもたちへの警告としてこうした話をしているというイリーナさんは、「どのような形であれ、子どもたちは隣人がどんな人たちなのか知っておくべきだ。ウクライナにはこれからも国境がある。ロシアはこれからも隣国であり続ける」
マクシム君と一緒に遊ぶ少年の一人は、さらに踏み込んだ考えを持っている。
「前線で死んだ兵士たちのために、どうにかして絶対仕返ししたい」と戦闘服と手作りの防具を身に着けたアンドリー・シロキフさん(13)は語る。
夢は兵士になることで、軍事戦略を学ぶためでなければ学校に行く意味はないと思っている。「ロシア人が僕たちにしたことをやり返したいんだ」【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2023/06/01-17:12)
'Playing war'-- Conflict militarises Ukraine children
The boys wear second-hand helmets and their guns cannot kill, but the war they play at in a verdant Ukraine field is real for them and carries consequences.
Over a year into Russia's invasion, the fighting has seeped into Ukrainian children's games and worldviews, impacting them in ways they will carry forever.
I really enjoy playing war. I want to grow up to be a real war hero, said 10-year-old Maksym Mudrak, wearing child-size battle fatigues, a beat-up helmet too big for his head and a plastic toy gun.
Maksym's father, who was not in the military, was killed near Kyiv in the war's early days after going out to deliver supplies to volunteers defending against Russia's attack, the family said.
The boy's grandmother said he became steadily more interested in war following the invasion and the loss of his 40-year-old dad Oleksiy Mudrak on March 4, 2022.
He was very, very affected by his father's death. Maksym constantly thinks about him. He goes to the cemetery and cries, 72-year-old Valentyna Mudrak said.
Maksym sees becoming a soldier as a way to preserve his father's memory and has a clear idea who is responsible for the war that took him.
I treat Russians like my worst enemies, said Maksym, who lives with his grandmother near Kyiv in Stoyanka.
- 'They are evil' -
The war has brought staggering destruction and suffering to Ukrainians, and for children that has meant losing loved ones, being ripped from schools or homes and exposure to horror.
Also, over 500 children have been killed since the invasion, according to UN statistics.
Psychologist Kateryna Goltsberg said children have long played war in conflict situations and it is both a reflection and a means to process their experiences.
And while all Ukrainian children are impacted by the war in some way, it's not clear whether those experiences will result in life-long trauma.
War changes us. But we have to realise that there is another such thing as post-traumatic stress growth, when a person who has survived traumatic events... becomes stronger, she said
The confrontation on the front line has changed the way children interact on the playground.
Lesya Shevchenko said her eight-year-old daughter Dana used to have just one question for the children she met in public: What's your name? Let's go play.
But on a family trip to the beach in Bulgaria after the war began, Shevchenko was stunned when she realised her daughter was asking where potential playmates were from.
When children said they were Russian, Dana would turn silently and walk away.
I just think that I don't want to talk to them, that's all. Probably because I think that all Russians are a certain way, because in my eyes they are evil, Dana said.
Her mother, a 49-year-old dentist, said this was not behaviour she had taught, noting that she has told her children they cannot hate everyone from Russia.
Yet Dana has been left traumatised by the war ?- shelling has made her fearful of loud noises and she has been afraid to leave the protection of a bomb shelter.
Dana's mother herself is willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Russians clear about their opposition to Moscow's seizure of Ukrainian land in Crimea and the eastern Donbas region.
If a person says that 'this is a very controversial topic', then I won't talk to them. There is no grey area there ?- only black and white. We were attacked, Shevchenko said.
- 'I want revenge' -
Other parents see it as their duty to teach their children a view of Russia that leaves no space for discernment.
Iryna Kovalenko has taught her children since the invasion that Russians are collectively responsible for the war and those who are good have to prove it.
Her six-year-old daughter Sofiya summarised by saying: My mother told me they are launching bombs into Ukraine from Russia.
Mum also said that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) is very bad. And he beat cats and dogs when he was a child. And then, when he grew up, he turned to people, she added.
Kovalenko, a 33-year-old nurse, views her words to her children as a warning.
One way or another, they should know who they live next to. Ukraine will always have a border ?- Russia will always be our neighbour.
One of the other boys who plays war with Maksym, the child whose father was killed in the war's opening weeks, has taken that message a step further.
I really want to somehow take revenge for the soldiers who died at the front, said 13-year-old Andriy Shyrokyh, who wore battle fatigues and homemade body armour.
He dreams of becoming a soldier, and says he has absolutely no interest in going to school ?- unless it is to learn military tactics.
I want to do to the Russians the same as they did to us, the boy said.
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