A pregnant woman and her baby died after an attack on a hospital in Mariupol | Ukraine

The Associated Press has learned that a pregnant woman and her baby died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was supposed to give birth. Pictures The woman who was transported into an ambulance on a stretcher roamed the world, capturing the horror of the attack.

In videos and photos after the hospital in Mariupol was bombed last Wednesday, the woman was seen caressing her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers carried her through the rubble.

The woman was taken to another hospital closer to the front line, where doctors worked to keep her alive. Paramedics said she realized she was losing her baby, and yelled to them, “Kill me now.”

Surgeon Timur Marin said he found the woman’s pelvis and a loose thigh. Marin said medics delivered the baby by caesarean section but showed no signs of life. Then they focused on the mother.

“More than 30 minutes of maternal resuscitation yielded no results,” Marin said. “They both died.”

In the chaos that followed the attack, paramedics didn’t have time to get the woman’s name before her husband and father came to snatch her body. They said that someone came to at least recover it, so that it would not end up in one of the mass graves that were dug for many of the dead in Mariupol.

Russian officials, accused of war crimes, claimed that the maternity hospital had been taken over by Ukrainian extremists to use as a base, and that no patients or medics were left inside. Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations and the Russian embassy in London described the photos as “fake news.”

Associated Press journalists tracked the victims on Friday and Saturday at the hospital where they were taken, on the outskirts of Mariupol.

In a besieged city without food supplies, water, electricity or heating for more than a week, electricity from emergency generators is reserved for operating rooms.

As survivors described their ordeal, explosions outside shook the walls. The bombing and shooting in the area are intermittent, but relentless.

Marianna Vishgerskaya, blogger, I gave birth to a girl The day after the bombing. She wrapped her arm around newborn Veronica as she recounted the bombardment. After photos and videos that showed her descending a staircase strewn with debris while clutching a blanket, Russian officials claimed it was represented in a staged attack.

“It happened on March 9 in Hospital No. 3 in Mariupol. We were lying in the wards when glass, frames, windows and walls flew out,” said Vychigerskaya, who was still wearing the same polka dot pajamas as when she ran away. We don’t know how it happened. We were in our wards and some had time to cover themselves, some didn’t.”

Her ordeal was one of many in Mariupol, which became a symbol of resistance to Vladimir Putin’s invasion Ukraine. The failure to subdue Mariupol prompted the Russian forces to expand their offensive elsewhere.