(NewsNation Now) — A pregnant Ukrainian woman woke up to air raid sirens instead of an alarm clock Tuesday morning — but for now, Liudmyla Lukianets and her family are safe in their basement bomb shelter.
Currently, Lukianets, who is about three months pregnant, said she’s focused on staying calm, so the chaos of the Russia-Ukraine War doesn’t affect her baby.
“The stress will not help in this situation,” Lukianets said, so she is trying not to be nervous.
Lukianets is one of many Ukrainians taking refuge in basements and bomb shelters throughout the country. Some, like the one Lukianets is in, are makeshift shelters created from apartment complexes, gyms and subway stations.
Lukianets said on “Morning in America” Tuesday that staying was a difficult decision to make. For now, though, conditions in her part of the country, Rivne, a city in northwestern Ukraine of nearly 250,000 people, have stayed safe.
“I can be calm right now,” Lukianets said. “I want to raise my child as Ukrainian … I want this world to be happy, I want this world, to be honest, I want this world to be safe.”
It’s difficult at the moment, Lukianets said, to say how she will explain this moment in time to her child once they are born.
“It’s maybe just the beginning of the war,” she said. “I only hope that it will not be getting worse.”
When it comes to getting health care once she gives birth, Lukianets said hospitals around her are working, but getting medicine has been challenging since a lot of plants producing needed medications are in cities like Kharkiv and Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, which have been under heavy bombardment.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said attacks on hospitals and other health care facilities in Ukraine have increased rapidly in recent days, and warned the country is running short of needed medical supplies.
WHO said the agency is working to rapidly give oxygen, insulin, personal protective equipment, surgical supplies, blood products and more medical equipment to Ukraine.
Even in the face of adversity and uncertainty, Lukianets says she can’t be nervous.
“Stress will not help in this situation,” she said. “I’m strong and my baby will be strong.”
Reuters contributed to this report.