Pregnant women and newborns narrowly escape harm from Russian strike at maternity hospital, officials say

Video from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro shows extensive damage to a maternity hospital after a Russian missile strike early Friday.

If the missile made impact even closer to the hospital — and had staff not responded quickly to air raid warnings — there would likely have been significant casualties, according to Ukrainian officials. Twelve pregnant women and four newborn babies were not harmed.

Medical staff at the hospital moved all the patients to a shelter as soon as air raid alarms sounded, said Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region military administration.

"Windows were smashed in the building and the ceilings were broken. But all the patients and medical staff are safe," said Iryna Kulbach, the head of the obstetrics department at the hospital.

"The war came right into our hospital rooms, into the labor and delivery rooms," Kulbach said. "We were waiting for the new year, new lives (to begin at) our maternity hospital. I think we will survive everything."

Lysak said an apartment building across the street from the hospital was badly damaged, but the family living there took shelter in a small corridor.

The father, who gave his name as Yevhen, said: “We were sitting here in the corner when the strike happened. My wife and my kid were very scared. I held their ears. Everything was just flying.”

Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov recounted the moment he heard about the hospital being struck.

"My heart almost stopped when the phone rang for the hundredth time and the voice on the other end said: 'They hit the maternity hospital with a missile,'" the mayor said. "Then the voice called back: 'Exhale. The missile went tangentially,'" he continued.

At least 30 people were wounded in the missile strikes on Dnipro Friday, according to Ukrainian officials. Twenty of them are in hospitals, and at least six people in Dnipro have been confirmed killed.

Dnipro is located along a major river in central Ukraine and is one of the country's largest industrial cities