Russian Bombing of Mariupol shattered a city - and a family

for The Wall Street Journal

Viktoria Shishkina lost her baby. Her husband lost his leg. Now refugees in Germany, they are struggling to start anew. On the day she had been due to give birth last year, Viktoria Shishkina was asleep on the first floor of the maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine—then under siege by Russian forces. That morning was unusually quiet—until the strike that changed everything.

Photo Editor: Margaret Keady
Story by Isabel Coles and Kate Vtorygina
2023