the times | Tuesday March 15 2022 2GM 3News
A heavily pregnant woman rescued from
the bombed wreckage of a maternity
unit in the besieged Ukrainian city of
Mariupol last week has died of her
injuries. Her baby also died.
Photographs of the woman being
carried on a stretcher across the court-
yard of Mariupol Hospital No 3, were
published around the world, including
on the front page of The Times.
Claims by Russian diplomats that the
incident had been faked and that she
and other pregnant women seen in
photographs were actors caused
additional outrage.
The Ukrainian authorities said that
two adults and a child were killed in the
strike last Wednesday, and 17 women
and hospital staff injured.
Timur Marin, a surgeon, told a team
from the Associated Press news agency
in the town, which took the pictures
and later tracked down the women’s
stories, that the woman’s pelvis was
crushed and her hip detached as a re-
sult of the blast. Her baby was delivered
via caesarean section but showed no
signs of life, he said.
They then focused on trying to save
the mother. “More than 30 minutes of
resuscitation of the mother didn’t pro-
duce results,” he said. “Both died.”
The airstrike on the hospital was one
of more than 100 to date. The woman
who died was taken away by her
husband. She has not been named. A
second woman, who was photographed
staggering down the stairs, was identi-
fied as Mariana Vishegirskaya, who had
a following as an online beauty blogger.
She suffered only cuts to the head and
gave birth a day later to a healthy
daughter, named Veronika.
“It happened in Hospital No 3 in
Mariupol,” she said, cradling the baby in
her arms. “We were lying in wards when
glass, frames, windows and walls flew
apart. We don’t know how it happened.”
Another unnamed woman, who lost
some of her toes in Wednesday’s
bombing, gave birth to a daughter
named Alana on Friday.
The World Health Organisation said
there had been 24 confirmed attacks on
healthcare facilities in Russia’s onslaught
to date. At least 12 people had been
killed in these attacks, and 34 injured.
Altogether, the authorities say that
90 children have been killed in the
violence. There have been more than
4,300 births in Ukraine since the start
of the invasion and 80,000 women are
expected to give birth in the next three
months.News
Russia blasts apartment blocks
Mother pulled
from hospital
wreckage dies
with her baby
Richard Spencerhurt and homeless. In Moscow, however, President Putin denies ordering any attacks on civilian areas, saying that if they have been hit, there must have been a “mistake”STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE; GLEB GARANICH/REUTERSA pregnant woman rescued from a
Mariupol hospital died with her baby5 milesKYIV
BrovaryR Dnieper
Antonov
international
airportObolon block
of flatsUkrainian
parliamentIrpinRussian airstrikes yesterday
Past airstrikes/shelling/ground fighting
Russian-held territory/advances
Direction of Russian troop advanceAntonov
aircraft
factoryTV
towerready to resist with petrol bombs and an iron will
has yet to begin, the numbers of dead
and dying here are growing by the day.
A source at the mortuary told The
Times that there were 40 dead civilians
and 100 people in uniforms, stretching
the facility’s capacity. “It’s quite an aw-
ful sight, with some of the dead stacked
up on each other and covered only in
blankets,” the source said.
The mother of one soldier at the mor-
tuary said it had taken ten days to
retrieve her son’s body from ground
that was being constantly shelled. She
had “no more energy to cry”, she said,
and had found some relief in knowing
that she could at last bury him properly.
Mykolaiv is a staging post for Putin’s
assault on Odesa. Capturing it, and the
mile-long Varvarskiya Bridge across
the Pivdenny Buh River, would allow
tanks, armoured personnel carriers
and supply vehicles to race 80 miles to
the west for the main prize, Ukraine’s
biggest port and home to its navy.Control of Odesa would allow the
Russians to dominate Ukraine’s Black
Sea coast and choke the economy,
which depends on the port for a huge
proportion of its export revenues.
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Myko-
laiv, said the onslaught had already
been merciless. The Russians had been
“shelling and dropping bombs all over
our city”, he said, adding: “Our best
resource is our willpower.”
Kim, 41, said the Russians were
switching to an airborne assault on
Ukraine because “in villages and areas
with civilian populations, they are
losing ground”.
The city’s streets have been notice-
ably quieter, although many small
supermarkets, grocers and pharmacies
are still operating. A well-organised
network of volunteers has been trying
to check on elderly people, those living
alone and otherwise vulnerable people,
to ensure that they have sufficient foodor to help them leave their homes.
Kim was sure that the Russians were
deliberately targeting civilian areas to
scare people into leaving. “That is
consistent with their goals,” he said.
“They are trying to destroy the infra-
structure, electricity, heat, gas.”
Hundreds of people were leaving, he
said, and he understood the wish to get
loved ones, especially children and the
elderly, to safety. Among these who had
already left was Alena Kasinyska, who
fled for Romania. “People have no place
to live, we are scared,” she told Reuters.
“Houses were blown up.”
However, Kim said, most men of
fighting age were returning to defend
Mykolaiv after guiding their families
out of the city. Near the tyre barricades,
Maksym said that Ukrainians needed
more support from the West, echoing
Zelensky’s call for a Nato no-fly zone.
“If we had that,” he said, “the Russians
would be out of here very fast”.also to make the Russians wonder what
was behind them. Petrol bombs were
ready inside the makeshift fortifications.
In the centre of the city, Maksym,
wearing the uniform of the territorial
defence forces, was on patrol with his
friend, Oleg. Before the war the two
men, both in their fifties, were civil
servants. Yesterday both carried Ka-
lashnikovs. “That prick doesn’t scare us,”
Maksym said, talking about President
Putin. “We’re not running away and the
Russians will get a hell of a reception if
they try to come into our city.”
That confrontation looks likely to
come within days. The Ukrainian army
warned yesterday that Russian forces
were “regrouping” for an offensive on
Kyiv, the capital to the north, President
Zelensky’s home town of Kryvyi Rig, in
the east, and Mykolaiv in the south, the
strategic gateway to the port city of Od-
esa and control of the Black Sea.
Though the final battle for Mykolaiv