Babies born in bomb shelters as Ukraine population plummets

New Straits Times

2 days ago

DEEP beneath Kyiv, midwives are busy in a bomb shelter-turned-labour ward, where flickering lights cut through the dark to cast long shadows along its cold, concrete halls.
But births are few and far between as Ukraine's population plummets after more than three years of conflict and the mass exodus that Russia's invasion triggered.
As war drags on without relent, Ukraine faces a quieter — if more existential — crisis: demographic collapse. Since the war began in 2022, the population has shrunk by more than 10 million, or around a quarter.
The country now has one of the world's lowest birth rates and one of the highest death rates — 18.6 deaths per 1,000 people, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
The birth rate has simultaneously fallen to about 0.9 children per woman, down from 1.16 before 2022, according to a government official.
"The demographic situation is really dark," said Olga Oleinikova, a Ukrainian-born associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
She said unless Ukraine reformed its crumbling healthcare system and addressed the trauma caused by war, the death toll would keep climbing — and long after the conflict ends.
In the bunker-turned-ward, Alla Lobas, head midwife of Kyiv City Clinical Hospital, works at a place where hope meets fear.
"When the women hear explosions and you see the patient who is about to give birth, tears are just streaming down their faces. The mothers are trembling, but when they feel the baby on their chest, it brings a little calm. They feel they must protect their child, and things shift."
"The future of Ukraine lies here," she said.
Liliya Ozel is part of that future but her story highlights the difficulties facing Ukrainians who want children.
In May, she was preparing to give birth at the Kyiv City Maternity Ward, having left her husband and two daughters, aged 4 and 7, in Turkiye where they fled at the start of the war.
"My daughter struggled emotionally — the sirens, the alerts. She still wets the bed sometimes."
Ozel's husband was allowed to leave because he has Turkish citizenship, but under martial law, Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are banned from going abroad without special permission.
Daniil Horobchenko is among them.
He married Dasha weeks after the invasion in a wedding celebrated under sirens and blackouts. Today their dream of raising a child is unthinkable.
"One of the crucial moments was the electricity blackouts. We saw the hospitals with many pregnant women being shelled," said Dasha. "They also bomb the schools and then all the places where kids can be, even playgrounds."
Some mothers take another route.
Deep in the forests of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, a group of women stand behind mounted machine guns, eyes fixed on the sky in search of enemy drones.
Kuma, a mother of two, once lectured in economics but has now joined the "Women of Bucha" — civilians turned defenders.
"I have two small children, aged 10 and 9. They must be protected. Every time I send them to school, I have to be sure that a drone won't come and crash on them," she said.
Countless mothers are now sole parents; fathers killed in battle, missing or on the frontlines. The US Centre for Strategic and International Studies estimates 60,000 to 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed.
War would haunt children into adulthood without speedy intervention now, said Kyiv-based psychologist Aksana Piseva.
"These kids, these teenagers, they were 15 when the war started, now they're 18 ... If we don't give them the tools to survive and heal now, the trauma will shape everything they do."
Olena Rozvadovska, co-founder of the Voices of Children Foundation which delivers psychological aid to children in war zones, said all Ukraine's children had been affected.
"Some children now believe war is all they'll ever know."
Yet in an act of hope and defiance, Rozvadovska is now pregnant with her first child.
"You can die any day and at any time and it makes you think — what's really meaningful in life? Your loved ones," she said.
"We don't want to lose our country. We have to fight for our next generation with everything we can. So let's have a baby."
The writer is from Reuters