19 surrogate babies are trapped in a Kyiv basement, kept alive by nannies.
Down a dusty stairwell, hidden from the shelling that has become the grim background noise of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, Ludmila Yashenko fusses with the babies. There are 19 of them, sleeping or cooing in neatly arranged cribs, fed regularly from tubs of baby formula.
Ms. Yashenko and other nannies bounce the babies on their laps and straighten their bibs, even as they watch television, wide-eyed, to learn the latest news from the war.
The babies were born to surrogate mothers, with their biological parents still outside the country. Because of the war, the citizenship of the newborns is unclear, as is the question of who their legal guardians are, since under Ukrainian law their biological parents must be present to confirm their nationality.
There is also the question of how, or if, they can possibly be taken to safety.