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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Alahna Kindred

Heroic Ukrainian mum saves baby’s life by using body to shield her from shelling

A heroic Ukrainian mum saved her baby's life from Russian shelling by shielding her body.

Olga, 27, was badly injured by shrapnel during Vladimir Putin's assault on Kyiv last week.

In a moving image shared online, she is seen cradling her one-month-old baby as a man who is believed to be her partner comforts them.

Miraciously, the baby girl is believed to have not been hurt thanks to her quick-thinking mum.

The two were being cared for on Friday at Kyiv’s Ohmatdyt children’s hospital.

Journalist Anastasiia Lapatina, who works at the English-language newspaper the Kyiv Independent, said the baby was well.

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Olga holds her baby after sheltering her from shrapnel blasts (via REUTERS)

She tweeted: "This woman, Olga, covered her one-month-old baby girl with her body during shelling in #Kyiv and was severely injured as a result.

"The baby wasn’t harmed. The family is now being treated at Ohmatdyt."

It comes as the Russian advance on Kyiv falters, with forces stalling northeast of the city.

Overnight, Russian bombs destroyed a Kyiv shopping mall, killing at least eight people.

Olga lies on a stretcher in Kyiv, Ukraine (via REUTERS)

Firefighters have been working through the night to rescue Ukrainians trapped underneath the rubble of the complex.

Retroville shopping mall, in the capital's Podilskyi district, was hit at just before 10.48pm last night.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said at least eight people had been killed in the strike, the Kyiv Independent reports.

The bodies of six people have been laid in front of the destroyed building, according to news agency AFP.

A police officer stands guard at the wreckage of a damaged shopping mall in Podilskyi district of Kyiv (Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

The explosion was caught on camera with CCTV footage showing a huge fireball rising from the mall.

Glass and other debris can be seen raining down from the sky in the clip, while another video shows a pile of rubble covered in flames.

The Kremlin attack from the direction of Hostomel - to the northwest - has been pushed back.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko tweeted: "Several explosions in the Podilskyi district of the capital.

"In particular, according to information at the moment, some houses and in one of the shopping centres. Rescuers, medics and police are already in place.

"Rescuers are extinguishing a large fire in one of the shopping centres in the Podolsk district of the capital.

"At this time - one victim. All services - rescue, medics, police - work on site. The information is being clarified."

The majority of Russian troops attempting to encircle the capital are more than 25 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv.

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