Born amid bombings, baby girl brings hope in war-torn Ukraine: "Everything will be OK"
Katya is just days old, but her life has already inspired a newfound wave of hope in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The newborn made her way into the world as her country came to the close of a full month of war.
Her mother, 37-year-old Tamara Kravchuk, has been terrified throughout as Russian President Vladimir Putin's deadly invasion continues. The scariest day, she said, was the first day, February 24, when "Russians began to shell Mykolaiv from all sides."
"Over time, every day, you get used to it more and more," the petrol station worker told Reuters. But then on Monday, a bomb hit a psychiatric hospital just about 500 meters away from the maternity hospital she is in. Nobody was injured, according to Reuters, as patients were evacuated just 20 minutes before the blast occurred.
Mykolaiv is among Ukraine's southern port cities that have been targeted by Russian forces. The area has been relentlessly hit by shelling for days. Last week, four people in Mykolaiv were killed while they were hiding in a school's bomb shelter.
A map distributed by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence on Wednesday shows that Russian forces have gained control of areas near Mykolaiv, and that they are only building their advance.
"I'm really scared of what's going to happen next, how it's going to end," Kravchuk said, saying that one of her main concerns right now is the toll that the situation is having on children.
"When I look at the number of victims, 50, 70 people, among them little children, then I have questions: What are they to blame for? Why did they get into such critical circumstances? And what will happen next?" she said. "Most of all, I fear for the children and for the future. It's scary to think how we will live here, in other cities, and will we be able to exist at all? That's what we're all worried about."
But even with the stress and turmoil, Kravchuk told Reuters that having Katya has only brought happiness. She is the 49th baby to be born at the hospital since the invasion began.
"No matter what happens now, I'm the happiest person," she said. "I just feel happiness because my daughter is healthy."
Dr. Valentin Podaranchuk, the head of the maternity ward where Katya was born, told Reuters that bringing in new life is like "bliss."
"A new life is born, despite all the horrors happening around," he said. "That's why we still have hope. Today a new little girl came into our world. We think when girls start to be born, it means that war will end soon."
Kravchuk seemed to agree.
"I think the war will end and we will live as it was before. Our life will be calm again and everything will be OK," she said. "I hope our children won't see all these crazy things and everything will be good. There is no other way."
