'SHOW THIS TO HIM': The heartbreaking photos doctors want Putin to see

WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: A six-year-old girl from Ukraine has died in a Russian shelling, after her city came under attack over the weekend, with schools and apartment buildings under fire.

On Sunday, an ambulance carrying the girl rushed to hospital in the port city of Mariupol, in south eastern Ukraine.

The girl was pale and her brown hair was tied back with a rubber band, her pyjama pants were covered in cartoon unicorns and blood.

Her father was by her side, also covered in blood with a head injury, her mother cried outside the ambulance, the Associated Press reported.

A medical worker desperately tried to save the girl, pumping her chest in hopes she could be revived.

“Take her out! Take her out! We can make it!” a hospital worker shouted, pushing a gurney to the ambulance.

After the girl was rushed inside the hospital, doctors and nurses gathered around her, one nurse cried as they tried to revive her with a defibrillator.

A video journalist from the Associated Press was allowed inside. One doctor looked directly at the camera, while pumping the child with oxygen.

“Show this to Putin,” he said angrily.

“The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.”

The Associated Press did not know the name of the girl and she did not survive. The doctor closed her eyes gently and she was left alone in the hospital room.

'Hundreds of explosions' heard in port city

Mariupol is a port city and separatists did not try to attack it when seizing eastern parts of the country when conflict began in 2014, despite it being important and home to steel mills.

The city of around half a million people is just 10km away from areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

When Russian forces started shelling a residential area in Mariupol, there were concerns the invaders would try to take the city.

Reuters reported that 26 people were being treated for wounds in hospital after an eastern district of Mariupol was shelled after Russian troops unsuccessfully tried to "break through" into the city on Thursday.

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A diplomatic source later told Reuters that the city outskirts had come under heavy fire and that hundreds of explosions had been heard.

One woman told Reuters she was going into hiding, while another said through the messaging app Telegram she was sheltering in her home, but was unsure if it was safe.

Putin's terrifying directive

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian nuclear forces be put on high alert.

The directive came on Sunday, local time with Putin reportedly citing "aggressive statements" by NATO and tough financial sanctions, while Russian forces closed in on Ukraine's capital.

So far, Russia has failed to claim Ukraine's airspace and US officials believe Russia's invasion has been slower and more difficult than the Kremlin initially envision.

However, the situation could change as Russian forces adapt.

Russian forces took control of Berdyansk, a city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, while Russian troops are closing in around Kyiv.

Authorities have supplied weapons to anyone who is willing to defend the city of almost three million and prisoners with military experience who are willing to fight are being released.

With Associated Press and Reuters

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