Ukrainian woman in Cork raises thousands for mothers giving birth under siege

Natalya Zaruba said she felt compelled to help when her cousin sent her photos last week of the devastation caused by Russian shelling and the impact it was having on the hospital and its patients

Ukrainian woman Natalya Zaruba has lived in Ireland for twenty years said she felt compelled to help when her cousin sent her photos of the devastation caused by Russian shelling and the impact it was having on the hospital and its patients. Picture: Dan Linehan

A Ukrainian woman living in Cork has raised almost €10,000 for her cousin and her medical colleagues in the besieged city of Kharkiv as they help women give birth in a warzone.

Natalya Zaruba, who lives in Mallow, said she felt compelled to help when her cousin, Dr Irina Ostopova, a gynaecologist in maternity hospital number seven in Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast of the country sent her photos last week of the devastation caused by Russian shelling and the impact it was having on the hospital and its patients.