A mother covered her one-month-old infant with her body as their home in Kyiv was being shelled, according to a Facebook post from National Children’s Specialized Hospital Ohmatdit on Friday.
The infant was unhurt, but the mother suffered multiple injuries, according to the post.
Also read: Satellite image shows damage of Mariupol theater after Russian airstrike
The child’s mother and father were at home feeding their infant when their building was shelled in the early morning hours. According to the hospital, they heard shelling throughout the night, increasing closer and closer.
“When I went down to the yard, I saw that a shell had hit the kindergarten next to our house. There is no more ceiling, windows and doors in all the houses nearby. The debris of glass flew right on us,” according to the hospital, her spouse stated.
Also read: Ukraine kills Russian general, shoots down 2 planes, 3 helicopters: Reports
The father had scrape wounds on his leg treated, and the mother had surgery for her injuries.
A hospital photograph of the family shows the mother feeding her infant while wearing a big bandage over her head, as the father looks on.
The Associated Press reported earlier this week that a pregnant mother and her baby were killed when Russian armed personnel bombed the maternity hospital where she was scheduled to give birth. Images of the woman being carried to an ambulance on a stretcher had gone viral, encapsulating the anguish of an attack on humanity’s most defenceless.
Also read: 1.5 million children fled Ukraine, UNICEF concerned about trafficking
A Ukrainian official alleged on social media that Russian troops were taking people hostage in a Mariupol hospital. He also encouraged international human rights organisations to ‘respond to these vicious violations of the norms and customs of war.’
The announcement came as Russian forces blasted Kyiv and other cities across the Ukraine in a brutal bombardment described by the Red Cross as “nothing short of a nightmare” for civilians.
Also read: Peace talks a ‘smokescreen’ for ‘extreme’ Russian attacks in Ukraine, warns UK
The city council reported a convoy of 160 civilian cars leaving the encircled port city of Mariupol along a designated humanitarian route, in a rare ray of hope a week and a half into the lethal siege that has pulverised homes and other buildings and left people desperate for food, water, heat, and medicine.