Following Russia’s attack on Mariupol’s maternity hospital last week, a pregnant woman who was meant to give birth at the hospital, and whose images went viral as she was stretchered from the bombed hospital, died along with her baby, according to the Associated Press on Monday.
The viral images of the woman being stretchered from the wreckage of the hospital, analysts say, epitomised the horror of Russia’s attack on the world’s most innocent, according to the AP.
The woman was reportedly taken to another hospital where doctors were unable to save her.
Surgeon Timur Marin found the woman’s pelvis crushed and hip detached, the news agency reported. Medics delivered the baby via caesarean section, but it showed “no signs of life,” the surgeon told the AP.
More than 30 minutes of attempts to resuscitate the mother did not produce results as she was also declared dead, the AP reports.
Russia’s foreign ministry, however, called the videos and images of pregnant women from the scene a hoax.
The AP said its correspondents documented the attack and saw the victims and damage firsthand.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, had said, on Thursday, that the hospital was a legitimate target.
The Russian authorities said the hospital had been taken over by Ukrainian extremists to use as a base, and that no patients or medics were left inside, according to the AP.
But Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko has described Mr. Lavrov’s assertion as “a total lie.”
