A pregnant Ukrainian woman whose evacuation from a Russian-bombed maternity hospital was broadcast around the world has died with her newborn, the Associated Pressreported Monday.The news agency documented the unnamed woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher in the besieged southern city of Mariupol last Wednesday.
The images highlighted the horrors of Russias invasion of Ukraine, now entering its 19th day, and prompted international condemnation.Doctors at another Mariupol hospital even closer to the frontline labored to keep the woman, with her pelvis crushed and hip detached, alive.
The woman reportedly pleaded with the medics to kill me now when she realized she was losing the baby.The newborn was delivered via cesarean section but showed no signs of life, the AP quoted surgeon Timur Marin as saying.Medics then switched their attention to the mother, where Marin said more than 30 minutes of resuscitation didnt produce results.Both died, Marin said.Russian officials called the images of evacuations at the Mariupol maternity hospital fake news, claiming that Ukrainian extremists had cleared it of civilians and taken over it as a base.The Associated Press said its journalists saw the victims and damage firsthand, documenting the attack through video and photos.Among them was another widely spread photo of blogger Mariana Vishegirskaya, who gave birth to a girl the day after Wednesdays air strike.Russian officials called Vishegirskaya an actor in a staged attack.Mariupol authorities say 2,187 residents have died from around 100 Russian aerial bombs as of Sunday.Kyiv and aid agencies call the siege of Mariupol which sits along what could serve as a land bridge between mainland Russia and annexed Crimea a humanitarian catastrophe with no electricity or heating and the last supplies of food and water running out.