徴兵逃れのウクライナ人、命懸けでルーマニアへ

【ルーマニアＡＦＰ＝時事】ルーマニア北部の残雪に覆われた山岳地帯で、レスキュー隊員はウクライナ人男性（２１）の震える声を聞いた。軍の動員対象年齢が引き下げられた母国から、山を越え川を渡り命懸けで脱出しようとする若者の一人だった。（写真は、ルーマニアのマラムレシュ山脈で、緊急出動の呼び出しを受けた山岳レスキューの責任者ダン・ベンガさん）
　「とても寒い」と、男性は訴えた。５月でも雪が残る急峻（きゅうしゅん）な山々を３日間歩き続け、腰を痛めていた。
　マラムレシュ山岳救助隊のダン・ベンガ隊長はＡＦＰに、越境者は「戦争未経験で、前線行きを恐れている若者」だと語った。
　「彼らの多くが、戦場で死ぬより山に逃げて死んだ方がましだと言っている」
　ウクライナは兵士の補充のため、法改正により動員対象年齢の下限を２７歳から２５歳に引き下げた。
　これ受け、ルーマニアに逃れるウクライナ人が急増。ルーマニア国境警察によると、今年１～４月の越境者はほぼ２５００人と、前年同期の倍になった。
　彼らは山で凍死するか、国境沿いを流れるティサ川で溺れ死ぬリスク覚悟でやって来る。
　今回救助された男性は、今年に入って救助されたウクライナ人としては３７人目。ロシアによる侵攻開始以降では、累計１００人超が救助されている。
　ただし、救助が間に合わない場合もある。
　高地で雪に埋もれた２人の遺体が見つかったとの報告もあった。２人とも身分証明書を所持しておらず、荷物も見当たらなかった。
　ベンガさんは、２人はほぼ１か月前に行方不明になったとされるウクライナ人だとみている。
　「悲劇だ」と、ベンガさんは語った。越境者の装備は貧弱で、「着替えや食糧も携行していない」ことが多いという。
　侵攻開始以降、２３人のウクライナ人の遺体がルーマニア領内で見つかっている。
　そのうち１３人は川から引き揚げられた。山越えより渡河の方が時間を短縮できるが、水は冷たく流れが速いため、危険を伴う。
　ベンガさんは、雪解けが進めばさらに多くの遺体が見つかるのではないかと懸念している。
　ウクライナ人男性たちはルーマニアに入った後、入国管理センターに行けばウクライナ避難民に与えられる一時的な保護を申請できる。
　あるセンターの責任者は「手続きは５分ほどで終わる」と話した。
　侵攻開始後、１８歳から６０歳までのウクライナ人男性は基本的に出国を禁じられたが、ルーマニアの国境警察によると、侵攻が始まって以降、同国人男性１万２０００人が入国している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/06/26-20:12）

High in the snowy mountains of northern Romania, rescuers heard the trembling voice of a young Ukrainian man -- one in a flood of fugitives now swelled by stricter conscription rules in the war-stricken country.
I'm so cold, the 21-year-old said. His back hurt after walking for three days over steep mountains with snow-covered peaks in May.
He was just one of thousands who have been fleeing secretly across the border to EU member Romania as Ukraine has tightened its draft rules.
They are kids who never fought in their lives, scared to go to the battle front, Dan Benga, head of the Maramures Mountain Rescue, told AFP.
Many of them say that they'd rather come and die on the mountain than die in the war.
Struggling to contain the Russian offensive launched in February 2022, Ukraine has lowered the minimum age of mobilisation from 27 to 25.
It has pushed more Ukrainians than ever to flee to Romania: almost 2,500 in the first four months of 2024, according to Romanian border police, twice as many as in the same period last year.
They risk freezing in the mountains or drowning in the Tisa River that runs along part of the northern border.
- Dead in the snow -
Benga and a fellow rescuer were at 1,600 metres (5,200 feet) altitude when the young man's call reached them.
Benga asked him for precise GPS coordinates and dispatched three rescuers to get him.
He was the 37th Ukrainian saved this year, one of more than 100 rescued in the area since the war started.
But help comes too late for some.
Earlier, Benga's team had been told of two bodies in the snow even higher up the mountain.
They were brought down in body bags, on stretchers.
The men had no identification on them and no baggage could be found.
But Benga believed they were two Ukrainians who had been reported missing almost a month ago.
The sister of one of them had contacted him in desperation.
It's a tragedy, he said. Many of those who flee are ill-equipped, with no change of clothes, no provisions.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, 23 Ukrainians have been found dead on Romanian soil, border police say.
Of them, 13 were pulled from the Tisa river -- a faster route than via the mountains, but dangerous because of the cold water and strong currents.
Benga fears that as the snow melts, more bodies will be found.
- Fugitive 'city of love' -
Those who make it across the border go to immigration centres where they can request temporary protection, granted to Ukrainians fleeing the war.
The procedure takes approximately five minutes, said the director of one centre, Simona Chioran.
Among the Ukrainians arriving there in vans and cars was a 29-year-old man, travelling with his wife and daughter.
He held his two-year-old in his arms as she slept, head resting on his shoulder, while he answered an immigration officer's questions.
He would not tell AFP how he managed to get out of Ukraine.
Most Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 have been barred from leaving their country under martial law.
But some 12,000 have made it to Romania since the beginning of the war, according to border police.
Locals say many soon leave for other countries, but some have settled near the border crossing of Sighetu Marmatiei, or Sighet, 90 kilometres (56 miles) from the immigration centre.
There, in a pizzeria near the wooden bridge over the Tisa river, a Ukrainian man in his late 40s told AFP he left just before the war and now helps some of the Ukrainian men who have fled.
He asked not to be identified.
During the weekends, he says, women who have remained in Ukraine come to Sighet to see their husbands.
They bring them home-made sarmale, a traditional stuffed cabbage roll.
On those days, he says, Sighet becomes like Paris: a city of love.