‘Show this to Putin’: Six-year-old Ukrainian girl killed in Russian shelling as doctor make angry plea

Images show hospital medics fighting to save child’s life after apartment block hit in southern port city of Mariupol

A doctor has issued an angry plea after a six-year-old Ukrainian girl died in a Russian shelling (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

A doctor has issued an angry plea as images emerged of a six-year-old Ukrainian girl in unicorn pyjamas lying fatally wounded in hospital following a Russian shelling.

The child was rushed to hospital by ambulance after her apartment block was shelled in the southern port city of Mariupol on Sunday.

Distressing pictures show a woman covered in blood, believed to be her mother, weeping outside an ambulance as a medical team tries desperately to save her.

The youngster was rushed inside the hospital alongside her wounded father, whose head was bloodied and bandaged.

One nurse gave her an injection while another tried to revive her with a defibrillator.

A doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, told a journalist who was allowed inside: “Show this to Putin. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.”

Sadly the girl, who has not been named, could not be saved.

Her body was left alone in the hospital room, covered by her brightly coloured polyester jacket, spattered with blood.

A woman holds a child and a dog in a shelter inside a building in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday 27 February 2022 (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

She is one of more than a dozen children killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.

At least 352 civilians, including 14 children, have so far been died, Ukraine’s health ministry said on Sunday, with hundreds more injured.

More than 4,500 Russian troops have also been killed, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

People fleeing Ukraine have poured into central Europe in recent days, with queues at border crossings stretching for miles after the invasion pushed nearly 400,000 people to seek safety abroad.

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine have poured into central Europe (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Blasts were heard in the capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, Ukrainian officials said, while a residential building in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine was on fire after being struck by a missile.

A Ukrainian delegation has arrived at the border with Belarus for talks with Russian representatives that will focus on achieving an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces, the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.

Late on Sunday Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said the next 24 hours would be a “crucial period” for the country, as he spoke on a call with Boris Johnson.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said partners were providing Ukraine with air-defence missiles and anti-tank weapons, adding that he had held another phone conversation with Ukraine's president on Monday morning.

People sit on the floor in an improvised bomb shelter at sports centre, which can accommodate up to 2,000 people, in Mariupol, Ukraine (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

It comes after Ursula von der Leyen announced the EU would be shutting its airspace to Russian airlines, as well as funding weapon supplies to Ukraine and banning pro-Kremlin media.

The European Commission president said she was “shutting down the EU airspace for Russian-owned, Russian-registered or Russian-controlled aircraft” in an escalation of sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Additional reporting by agencies