STORY: Only a few minutes old, baby Katya obviously doesn’t know about the happiness she brings to others. The baby was born in Mykolayiv, a Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, a city that has come under repeated Russian fire. Katya’s mother Tamara is 37 years old and works at a gas station. She says the fears and despair that ruled her before the birth of her daughter are gone — at least for now. “No matter what happens now, I’m the happiest person, I’m fine. I feel lucky because my daughter is healthy. May God bring peace.” Bullets fell at irregular intervals in Mykolaiv. A day before Katya’s birth, a building of the Psychiatric Clinic, which is located very nearby, was hit. In the maternity hospital there is no basement, no shelter in case of attacks. When the warning sirens sound, people are left with only the hallways and the floor. Valentin Podaranchuk heads the maternity ward. He says that with the war there was initially a wave of childbirth, and that stress can also trigger labor. Little Katya is the 49th baby born here since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24th. Fighting continues in Ukraine, but medic Podaranchuck calls Katya’s arrival a reason for hope for hospital staff as well. “For us, if I may say so as we do here, it is bliss. A new life is born, despite all the horror around it. That’s why we still have hope. Today a little girl came into our world. We believe if girls are born it will mean an end to the war soon.”