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Pregnant woman pictured leaving shelled maternity hospital has died, Ukraine says

An image of the expectant mother has been widely shared on social media.
Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman
Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital that was damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022.Evgeniy Maloletka / AP

A pregnant woman pictured being carried from a Ukrainian maternity hospital after it was badly shelled by Russian forces has died along with her unborn baby, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The woman, who has not been named, was photographed on a stretcher as she was being taken to an ambulance amid devastation and ruin in the besieged city of Mariupol on March 9.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called the attack “an atrocity” and said that three people died in the bombing. It’s unclear if the unnamed woman’s death is in addition to these.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry announced the woman’s death in a tweet, and repeated the government’s plea for Western powers to enforce a no-fly zone over the country to prevent future airstrikes.

Related: What it's like to be a pregnant woman in Ukraine right now

On Saturday, The Associated Press spoke to Timur Marin, the surgeon who attempted to save the woman’s life, who said her pelvis had been crushed and her hip detached. The baby was delivered by cesarean section but showed “no signs of life,” he said.

“More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said told the AP. “Both died.”

The woman’s father and husband arrived to retrieve her body, the AP reported, citing medical staff, saving her from being buried in one of Mariupol’s mass graves. Medics said they didn’t have time amid the chaos to ask for her name.

An image of the white-faced woman was widely shared on social media last week, and for many epitomized how even the most vulnerable have come under fire since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.


An injured pregnant woman walks downstairs in the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol Wednesday, March 9.
An injured pregnant woman walks downstairs in the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol Wednesday, March 9. Evgeniy Maloletka / AP

A tweet from Russia’s London embassy claimed last week that the hospital was no longer a medical facility but instead was “used by armed forces and radicals, namely the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.”

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to paint Ukraine as a Nazi hotbed and the Ukrainian National Guard is home to the Azov Battalion, which has historical ties to neo-Nazis, there is no evidence to suggest widespread support for such extreme-right nationalism in the government, military or electorate.

The tweet placed a “FAKE” slogan over the picture of injured pregnant women and quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It was later deleted by Twitter for breaching its rules “related to the denial of violent events.”

Related: Ukrainian moms are using cell phones to fight the war against Russia

On Sunday, the Red Cross warned that hundreds of thousands of civilians in Mariupol faced a “worst-case scenario” unless there was an agreement to ensure safety and access to humanitarian aid.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, said in a statement that people in the city are “facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine.”

“Dead bodies, of civilians and combatants, remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell,” the ICRC’s statement said.

“Life-changing injuries and chronic, debilitating conditions cannot be treated. The human suffering is simply immense.”

The Red Cross called on the parties to agree on the terms of a cease-fire, routes for safe passage, and to ensure the deal is respected. It offered to act as a neutral intermediary in negotiations.


Mariana Vishegirskaya lies in a hospital bed after giving birth to her daughter Veronika, in Mariupol on March 11.
Mariana Vishegirskaya lies in a hospital bed after giving birth to her daughter Veronika, in Mariupol on March 11. Evgeniy Maloletka / AP

There was better news for expectant mother Mariana Vishegirskaya, who was in the same maternity hospital in Mariupol during the shelling but escaped with minor injuries.

She gave birth to a girl, named Veronika, on Friday.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.