The desperate struggle of medics, doctors and nurses to save a 6-year-old girl who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling of a residential area captured the world's attention in recent days as images of the girl in an ambulance began to circulate.
Video footage shows the ambulance pulling up to the Mariupol hospital on Sunday with the girl in blood-soaked unicorn pajamas. Her father, also injured, was with her.
Though they had arrived at the hospital, medics in the ambulance continued CPR on the girl inside the vehicle until a hospital worker urged them to put her on a gurney and get her inside.
“Take her out! Take her out! We can make it!” the hospital worker shouted, according to The Associated Press.
Once inside, the girl was surrounded by nurses and doctors unable to hide their emotion.
One nurse wept. A doctor struggling to save the girl looked into the camera of an AP journalist and cursing in Russian said: "Show this to Putin. ... The eyes of this child and crying doctors." The girl did not survive.
In less than a week since Russia invaded Ukraine, increasingly heavy shelling has hit major cities, and a vast convoy of Russian forces threatened the capital, Kyiv.
Facing fierce resistance on the ground, Moscow appeared to ramp up its assault from the air, which Ukraine and international watchdogs said was hitting more and more civilians.
Global condemnation and crippling sanctions have left the Kremlin isolated in the wake of last week’s invasion, confronting a spiraling economy and dogged defense from Ukrainian forces. U.S. officials said they feared Russian President Vladimir Putin, frustrated by his military’s struggles, may see a greater escalation of violence as his only option.
Video from the hospital Sunday shows the girl's father pass by on a gurney, his head bandaged. The girl's mother busied her hands by sorting through a small pile of hastily grabbed clothes.
The girl, whose name was not immediately revealed, could not be resuscitated. Her jacket was draped over her chest.
The doctor closed the girl's eyes, and her body was left alone in the room, legs bare, her blood pooled beneath her on the floor.
