ロシア西部主要都市、学童疎開開始

【ベルゴロド（ロシア）ＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナ国境に近いロシア西部ベルゴロド市当局は１０日、ウクライナ軍による数週間にわたる激しい砲撃を受け、学童疎開を開始した。２０２２年２月のウクライナ侵攻開始以来、ロシア国内で最大級の民間人の避難となる。（写真は、ミサイル攻撃を受けたロシア西部ベルゴロドの様子）
　同市からはすでに約３００人が疎開している。
　バレンティン・デミドフ市長は「きょうから２１日間、ベルゴロドの児童３９２人はボロネジ州とカルーガの町外れにある健康キャンプへ行く」と発表した。
　未就学児の息子を連れて市の中央広場を歩いていた幼稚園教諭の女性（４２）は「安全な場所はどこにもない」とＡＦＰに語った。「家でも隣町でも、どこでも（攻撃は）起こり得る」「恐怖は常にある。決して消えることはない」
　軍と交通警察が警備する駅では、リュックサックや小さなスーツケースを持った子どもたちと、見送りに来た保護者の姿が見られた。
　ベルゴロド州のビャチェスラフ・グラトコフ知事のテレグラム投稿によると、子どもたちの第１陣はすでに出発し、同市よりも国境から離れた隣のボロネジ州のキャンプへ向かった。
　デミドフ市長は保護者に対する調査を引用し、市内で計１３００人ほどの児童が疎開の準備をしているとの推計を示した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/01/11-16:12）

Authorities in the Russian border city of Belgorod began evacuating hundreds of children Wednesday after weeks of deadly shelling from Ukrainian forces.
Some 300 residents have already left the city, one of the biggest civilian evacuations on Russian soil since Moscow launched hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022.
Today, 392 schoolchildren from Belgorod will go to out-of-town health camps in the Voronezh and Kaluga regions for 21 days, Belgorod mayor Valentin Demidov said.
The evacuations come a day after the Kremlin vowed Russia's military would do everything it could to stop the shelling, which officials say has left over two dozen people dead.
Nowhere is safe, 42-year-old kindergarten teacher Evgenia Savenko told AFP, as she walked through the city's main square with her preschool-age son.
It can happen anywhere -- at home or in a neighbouring town, she said. The fear is always present. It never goes away.
At the train station, which was guarded by military and transport police, parents could be seen escorting children carrying rucksacks and small suitcases.
- 'Every day they bomb' -
The evacuations are a blow to the Kremlin, which has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy in Russia ahead of President Vladimir Putin's re-election campaign.
Schools near the border with Ukraine had already been ordered to shut beyond their winter holidays, after a Ukrainian attack on December 30 killed 25 people.
Putin vowed to intensify strikes in response to that attack, the deadliest on Russian territory since its Ukraine offensive began almost two years ago.
Every day they bomb, in the morning and in the evening, said 83-year-old pensioner Nina Tikhonova, whose neighbour's house was damaged by shelling.
My acquaintances took their children to Ivanovo, a Russian city some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of the capital Moscow, she said.
The first group of children have left Belgorod for camps in the neighbouring region of Voronezh, further from the border, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said earlier on Telegram.
The city estimates that in total, some 1,300 schoolchildren are ready to leave, the mayor Demidov said, citing surveys given to their parents.