It had not even been 24 hours since the Russian President announced "special military operation" in Ukraine, that both gut-wrenching visuals and heart-warming stories started making their way to publications across different platforms. In one such incident, in the war-torn nation, new born infants from the neonatal intensive care unit at a children's hospital in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine were moved into a makeshift bomb shelter on a lower level of the building on Thursday.

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In the short clip doing the rounds on social media, infants, some not even full term, can be seen being taken care of by nurses. Each of the hospital's neonatal staff can be seen cradling the infants in their laps, while many of them lie among tubes and medical equipment. The make shift shelter is on a lower level of the hospital's building in Dnipro, a city that was the target of Russian missile strikes.

The head of the neonatal unit of the hospital Dr Denis Surkov rued, "This is our reality," while sharing the footage he shot with a media house.

Effects of war on children

There is no denying the ravaging life long, physiological effects violence, conflict and wars have on children. They are not of their doing and they must be protected at all costs. As per the organisation Save The Children, one in six children across the world are living in areas impacted by conflict. Unfortunately, it also says that children are more at risk in conflict now than at any time in the last 20 years. From Syria to South Sudan, Yemen to DRC, children are caught up in vicious circle of poverty, conflict and violence.

Netizens pray for peace

Almost everyone pointed out towards the "human toll of war," while others focussed on the resilient human spirit standing up for humanity and each other. "I cannot imagine that these nurses and staff left their families and children behind in the middle of war to do their duty. Real heroes."

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