In the dingy basement of this hospital in northern Ukraine, a line of newborn babies lie swaddled on a single bed.

Nearby, an exhausted mother gazes into her infant's eyes from a mattress on the floor.

This is the reality today (March 2) of Chernihiv maternity hospital where staff were forced by the intensifying Russian invasion to move to this basement turned bomb shelter and to the corridor of the first floor.

Twelve babies have spent their first hours in the basement in the last two days under the constant sound of Russian shelling.

A floor above, medics have been attending to 30 women in the corridor in claustrophobic conditions where utility pipes run along the ceiling and walls and medical supplies sit in cardboard boxes on the floor.

Staff say if the shelling intensifies mothers will also have to move downstairs and give birth in the basement alongside the newborns.

Chernihiv, which lies close to the border with Belarus, is now surrounded by Russian forces on all sides, according to residents.

Script:In the "Chernihiv maternity "hospital, women give birth to children under constant shelling. The department was equipped in the shelter of the maternity hospital. Ukrainian women give birth in the corridor on the first floor of the maternity hospital. If the shelling gets stronger, they will give birth right in the bomb shelter. On February 28, there were 30 women in it. Over the past two days, 12 children were born in the Cheernigovsky maternity hospital