Last maternity clinic in Ukraine-controlled Donbas a lifeline as war closes in

Baby Maria rests inside Pokrovsk maternity hospital, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, June 28, 2022. Doctors at the centre anecdotally observed that the smouldering conflict, which would kill more than 14,000 people between 2014 and 2022, was having an impact on pregnancies. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

POKROVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - In the last specialist maternity ward still under Ukrainian control in the eastern Donbas region, the windows are packed with sandbags. Rooms used for births at the Perinatal Centre in the city of Pokrovsk follow the two-wall rule, which says the safest parts of a building are separated from the outside by at least two walls.

"Sometimes we've had to deliver babies during shelling," said Dr. Ivan Tsyganok, head of the centre. "Labour is a process that cannot be stopped."