Ukraine War: Refugee tells of wife's death after maternity hospital bombing

The image of Irina Kalinina has become a symbol of the horrors of the Ukraine war

The image of a heavily pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher through the rubble after the maternity hospital in Mariupol was bombed has become a defining photograph of the war in the Ukraine.

It symbolised the true horror of the conflict and, for a while, no-one knew who she was.

Her name was Irina Kalinina.

She was seriously injured in the airstrike on the hospital on 9 March and later died along with her baby, who was delivered by emergency Caesarean section at the city's regional hospital.

• You can find out more about Irina and Mariupol in the feature-length Panorama documentary on iPlayer.

Her husband Ivan has sought sanctuary and is living in Porthcawl, in Bridgend county. He described feeling "completely destroyed" after his wife and newborn son were killed.

"Irina loved life, she was happy, she was a go-getter and she was the best for me."

This is how Ivan remembers his wife.

• Deadly Russian strike on Ukraine maternity hospital

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Irina was a manager of a clothes shop in Mariupol and was very excited to be pregnant with the couple's first child.

Ivan said: "We were really happy and joyful. We had been waiting for this baby for a long time."

'Pain and loss'

The couple were expecting a boy and had named him Miron after the Russian word mir, meaning peace.

Ivan, an engineer at the steelworks in Mariupol, described the moment he was told the devastating news by doctors.

"I don't know how to describe the pain and loss.

"I was completely destroyed. I was disappointed in everything. I couldn't believe Irina died."

Ivan Kalinina was 'completely destroyed' by the death of his wife Irina

BBC Panorama spoke to three medics who tried to save Irina and her baby.

The couple had been trying for years to have a child, and Irina begged not to be saved after learning her baby had not survived.

Oksana Kyrsanova, an anaesthetist at Mariupol regional hospital, said: "The baby was taken out showing no signs of life. I saw tears streaming down the faces of my colleagues.

"It is the most terrifying thing I have ever seen in my life. Packing a young woman in a black bag with her baby who we laid over her breast."

Buried together

Ivan said when he sees the photo of Irina on the stretcher, "I feel pain, anger. I just don't know how to live and go ahead".

He added: "They were buried together in Mariupol in a cemetery. But her parents wanted to bury her closer to them, so they reburied her and the baby together in her parents' village."

Irina was a manager of a clothes shop in Mariupol

Ivan moved to Porthcawl in September after getting his biometric residence permit.

He continued: "Life here is fine, normal. People here are really kind and helpful and I think I am lucky to be here.

"I plan to find a job now I have the permit and to try and move on with my life."

Ivan Kalinina, now living in Porthcawl, lost his wife and baby son in the Mariupol hospital bombing

But Ivan said it was impossible to imagine a future without Irina.

"I don't have much hope at the moment and I haven't got used to the idea that I am alone," he said.

Ukrainian officials now believe that at least 25,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Mariupol since the start of the war and that between 5,000 and 7,000 of them died under the rubble after their homes were bombed.

Mariupol had a pre-war population of nearly 500,000 people.

When asked what message he would send to Russian president Vladimir Putin, Ivan replied: "I would say to him 'for what?'

"All of our lives we thought that Russians were our brothers. He just attacked us, he killed us, killed our relatives, friends and loved ones.

"For what? Why?"