Day 14: Mass grave dug; pregnant women evacuated
In the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol, masked workers roll bodies into a 25-foot-long trench that has been hastily dug amid continued shelling by Russian forces.
Elsewhere in the city, four men sprint away from a heavily damaged maternity hospital conveying a bleeding pregnant woman on a stretcher. Another pregnant woman dressed in pajamas and with cuts on her face gingerly makes her way down a debris-covered staircase, while in the courtyard, emergency employees pick their way across a desolate landscape littered with mangled cars and shards of glass from blown-out windows.
The 14th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw more bloodshed and destruction as the unrelenting assault forced more citizens to flee. Images captured by Associated Press photographers show some refugees evacuating via the slippery wooden planks of a makeshift bridge — the Ukrainians blew up the concrete span leading from the town of Urpin to the capital of Kyiv days ago to slow the Russian advance.
Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital that was damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Other images show a military priest attempting to console a crying woman outside Irpin; a convoy of military vehicles carrying residents to safety; and harried refugees sitting or standing on an evacuation bus, their faces registering shock, sadness and resignation.
While Russian forces showed no signs of pulling back, Ukrainian fighters on the ground vowed not to give in. In one AP image, an armed Ukrainian serviceman is seen taking up a shooting position in Irpin as he warily eyes approaching vehicles. In another, members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces are seen training to use an NLAW anti-tank weapon on the outskirts of Kyiv.
