(NEW YORK) — A pregnant woman and her unborn child who were evacuated from a bombed children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, Ukraine, has died, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She was captured in a photo taken by an Associated Press photographer after a Russian airstrike destroyed the hospital. She was carried out from the rubble of the hospital on a stretcher.
In the now internationally known photo, the woman can be seen covered in dust, holding her lower abdomen as she was carried through the wreckage.
She died after medics at a nearby hospital attempted to save her and her baby’s life.
Another pregnant woman evacuated from the wreckage, Marianna Podgurskaya, gave birth to a girl Sunday, Voice of America reporter Asya Dolina said.
Ukrainian officials said the attack initially killed at least three people, including a child, and wounded at least 17 people. Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov said that at least 1,207 people have died in the city because of shelling and aerial attacks since the Russian invasion began.
Half of those killed were ethnic Russians. Among the casualties was a child who died from dehydration, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy had posted a video on social media last Wednesday, which he said showed the heavily damaged children’s hospital and maternity ward in the southeastern Ukrainian port city.
“Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” he said, calling on the international community again to impose a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine. “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?”
The city has been burying its dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol as it endures heavy shelling, officials said.
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