「ウクライナは第２のアフガニスタンにならない」　ゼレンスキー大統領

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は２１日、米下院がウクライナ支援のための約６１０億ドル（約９兆４０００億円）の追加予算案を２０日に可決したのを受け、自国は「第２のアフガニスタン」にはならないと強調した。（写真は資料写真）
　ゼレンスキー氏は米ＮＢＣテレビのインタビューで、「（米国の）支援はウクライナ（軍）を強化するとともに、ウクライナは第２のアフガニスタンにはならないという強力なシグナルをクレムリン（ロシア大統領府）に送ることになる」と語った。
　「米国はウクライナと共にあり、ウクライナ国民、そして世界中の民主主義を守ってくれる」と付け加えた。
　１９７９年に旧ソ連による侵攻が始まったアフガンでは、米国からの武器提供を受けたムジャヒディン（イスラム聖戦士）が抵抗し、１０年後に駐留ソ連軍は撤退。
　その後、内戦状態に陥る中、強硬派のイスラム主義組織タリバンが国土の大部分を支配下に置いたが、２００１年９月１１日の米同時多発攻撃を機に米国が侵攻した。紛争は泥沼化し、２０年後の２０２１年に米軍は撤退。政府軍は消耗して壊滅状態に陥り、再びタリバンが政権を握った。
　ゼレンスキー氏は、自国軍の一部も「疲弊」していると認めた上で、「兵員の入れ替えが必要だが、新たな部隊には装備が必要だ」と主張。「（追加支援案を）早急に成立させてほしい。そうすれば前線の兵士にも直ちに具体的な支援ができる。さらに半年は待てない」と訴えた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/04/22-16:43）

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenksy welcomed news that US lawmakers had passed a massive aid package Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow denounced each other over the latest exchange of deadly air strikes.
Western leaders also hailed the approval of the long-awaited $61-billion package for Ukraine's war effort, which is expected to make a swift passage through the US Senate.
Today, we received the decision we expected: the US support package we fought so hard for, said Zelensky in his evening address.
And it is a very significant package that will be felt by our soldiers on the frontline, as well as by our towns and villages suffering from Russian terror.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba thanked US lawmakers and called it a bad day for Putin.
Zelenksy and Kuleba both expressed hopes the package would quickly pass the US Senate for approval by US President Joe Biden.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also welcomed the news.
This significant boost in aid will supplement the tens of billions of aid being provided to Ukraine by European Allies, he said.
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel also welcomed the vote in a joint statement: Ukraine deserves all the support it can get against Russia.
The USA and Europe stand together on the side of freedom - against Putin's war of terror, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X, formerly Twitter, calling it a day of optimism.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the vote had been expected.
It will further enrich the United States of America and ruin Ukraine even more, by killing even more Ukrainians because of the Kyiv regime, he added.
- Deadly air strikes -
Earlier Saturday, Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of deadly strikes on civilians overnight.
Russian strikes killed three people in central and northeast Ukraine, according to local officials.
In Russia's western Belgorod region, cross-border Ukrainian attacks killed three people, said the local governor.
Ukrainian drones killed two people in Russia's Belgorod border region, its governor said early Saturday, while shelling later in the day fatally wounded a pregnant woman.
A residential building and a barn in the village of Poroz, near the frontier, has been completely burned down, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Another building was severely damaged.
Tragically, two civilians died -- a woman who was recovering from a fractured femur, and a man who was caring for her, Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
He later said Ukraine shelling of the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, had killed a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
Doctors did everything possible to save both mother and child. But to great grief, the woman and the unborn baby died from their wounds, he said.
A Russian attack killed a man in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, while artillery strikes on residential buildings in the northeastern city of Vovchansk left two others dead, officials said.
Russia fired at least seven missiles at Ukraine overnight, two of which were shot down by air defences, Ukraine's air force said.
Ukraine has in recent months pleaded for more air defences from its Western allies as it struggles to fend off a surge in deadly attacks on civilian infrastructure.
- Infrastructure targeted -
A source in Ukraine's defence sector told AFP that Kyiv had targeted eight Russian regions overnight in a large-scale drone strike.
It was aimed at energy infrastructure that feeds Russia's military-industrial complex.
At least three electrical substations and a fuel storage base were hit and caught fire, the source added, in a joint operation of Ukraine's SBU security service, army, and military intelligence.
Russia's defence ministry said it had intercepted 50 Ukrainian drones overnight, some of them hundreds of kilometres from the border, including near the capital Moscow.
Video posted on social media purportedly showed a large blaze at a fuel depot in Russia's western Smolensk region, an attack the governor confirmed was caused by the drones.
Air-defence forces shot the aerial vehicles down, governor Vasily Anokhin said. However, as a result of falling debris, a tank with fuel and lubricants caught fire.
Kyiv has ramped up strikes on Russian oil and gas facilities in recent months, part of what it calls fair retaliation on infrastructure used to fuel Russia's war.