In Ukraine, tales of tragedy as Euronews visits a hospital near the frontline of Russia's war
Natalia's first instinct after a bomb destroyed much of her house was to locate her five-year-old daughter.
After finding her amid the rubble, she raced with the youngster in her arms to soldiers near the frontline in south-east Ukraine.
They applied a tourniquet to her leg, but it wasn't enough to save it. She remains in intensive care at a hospital in Kryvyi Rih, around 50 kilometres from the fighting.
Her mum is in a nearby hospital, feeling lucky to be alive after the bomb -- which fell in late April -- failed to detonate. She lost her toe, has damaged feet and is bruised black and blue.
“It came through our roof, and all the rubble fell all over us," said Natalia, adding her family had not been sheltering underground as there was no siren in their village of Vysokopilla.
"My five-year-old daughter is at another hospital here in Kryvyi Rih. She lost her leg. I just remember how everything fell on me. I am petrified today. I feel terrible. My daughter is still in urgent care. I just hope that all of this will be over.”
Natalia is one of many patients at the hospital in Kryvyi Rih, which receives some of the worst cases in the region. Often wounded civilians firstly arrive at hospitals near the frontline and are then moved to bigger ones such as this if their injuries require it.
The UN’s official civilian death toll in Ukraine is 3,381, but the actual number might be much higher, according to Matilda Bogner, head of the UN mission in Ukraine. She says 3,680 people have been injured.
On top of this is the military casualties. Ukraine says more than 25,000 Russian soldiers have died, while last month Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that up to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed. Euronews is unable to independently
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