Lying between shelves, on hastily cobbled together “cots” from sacks, bags, boxes and other equally available items, doctors and nurses scurry between them across the room hastily converted from storeroom to infirmary: newborn babies who need special attention and a few floors up in intensive care until Russia attacked Ukraine. They’re far too young to really appreciate all the drama going on around them, and that’s a good thing in this case.
The sometimes absolutely tiny newborns are mainly premature babies and children who were born with diseases. They are the very weakest and most vulnerable of Ukrainians, and in order to offer them the best possible protection amidst the rocket attacks on the city of Dnipro, where they were born, hospital staff had to act quickly: they moved all the babies in the NICU to one room without further ado a few floors below, underground – the room that seems to have been a kind of warehouse now serves as both an intensive care unit and an air raid shelter. The little ones will continue to be cared for around the clock, all the necessary equipment and hoses are – for the time being – available.
