in Mariupol, the newborns of the basement

Next to a maternity hospital in Mariupol (Ukraine), Russian tank fire is heard on Saturday, April 9. The floors, which have become too dangerous, are empty. It is in the basement that, for more than a month, children have been born in the middle of the war. Since the beginning of the conflict, there have been 26 births and one child has not survived. In a basement without light, a hundred people are piled up. Among them, young mothers with their babies.

“Here, as you can see, there are mattresses. With the explosions, they shake and there are very loud noises. All that unfortunately wakes the baby up”, says Anastasia Poddoubnaïa, who hugs her 17-day-old son. She and her child are miraculous, before arriving here, they were in the other maternity hospital in Mariupol, which was bombed on March 9. Her husband, Vladislav Pouddoubny, today feels helpless. “I don’t know what happens next, where to take it”he confides.