In times of normalcy, Ukraine had a booming surrogate industry where foreigners could get Ukrainian women to carry their offsprings. 

Now, with the dark cloud of war hovering over the country, at least 20 surrogacy babies have been waiting in a make-do bomb shelter in Ukraine’s capital for parents to travel into the war-hit country to pick them up. 

Despite constant shelling by the Russian troops, days-old babies continue to be taken care of by Ukrainian nurses of a surrogacy center. 

Nurses have been stranded in the shelter with babies due to constant bombardment, making it too challenging for them to head back to their homes. 

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According to a report by AP, Lyudmilla Yashchenko, a nurse at the makeshift shelter, stated that several nurses have been staying in the bomb shelter to save their lives and protect the infants, including newborns. For now, the nurses have managed to gather enough food and baby supplies to sustain themselves in the shelter for a few days. 

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Yashchenko added that she is worried about her own children, who are fighting to defend the country against Russia’s furious attacks.

Despite tensions rising between Russia and Ukraine, the nurses continue to cling to the hope of the newborns reuniting with their parents and the war coming to an end.  

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Earlier this week, a Russian airstrike destroyed a maternity hospital in the port city of Mariupol, wounding several people. 

“Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.