There have been calls for humanitarian corridors from all besieged Ukrainian cities to allow sick babies and mothers to escape the war.
Footage obtained by RTÉ from maternity hospitals in Kyiv and in Khmelnytskyi in the west of the country shows sick babies and pregnant women being treated in basements.
Pictures of a maternity hospital in Kyiv show dark and cramped conditions where mothers and babies are sheltering from the war raging outside.
Staff are struggling to keep sick and premature babies alive as the electricity is sporadic and there is no heating.
Footage from a maternity hospital in Ukraine shows premature babies being treated in basements.Doctors say they have no heat, sporadic electricity and are running low on medical supplies. There are calls for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the babies & their mothers @rtenews pic.twitter.com/BTMquTzAwC
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Dr Olena Kostiuk, a neonatologist associate professor in Ukraine, says babies will die if they cannot get access to the treatment they need.
"We have no heating, we have not good light, good electricity system, because all machine which we use for neonatal resuscitation and everything they need good electricity.
"Babies who are very premature or very sick who need special care they cannot have proper help in these conditions and also a big reason that these babies can die."
1,000 babies are born in Ukraine each day and ten per cent will need intensive care treatment.
At another maternity hospital in Khmelnytskyi in the west of the country medical supplies are dwindling and staff are struggling to cope.
Calls have been made for a ceasefire and a safe humanitarian corridor so babies and mothers can be brought to safety.
Consultant neonatologist in Cardiff and spokesperson for the British Association of Perinatal Medicine Dr Cora Doherty has spoken to colleagues in Ukraine who say they are unable to keep the babies warm.
"These babies need to be kept warm, for example, I had a text from someone in Kyiv last night saying they weren't able to keep babies warm. I said 'can you do kangaroo care, can you do skin-to-skin?' and she said we don't even have the parents here anymore.
"The doctors can't go home, they are there all the time looking after the babies and their mothers."
As people flee the war in Ukraine the most vulnerable children and babies have been left behind. Dr Doherty says the babies must be moved from the war zones as soon as possible.
"There isn't movement either to bring equipment in or support for teams on the ground, nor is there a viable way to actually get mothers, pregnant women or women who have delivered babies, out of those zones, so it is extremely important that that is delivered as soon as possible."
Professor David Southall, a British Paediatrician and honorary medical director of Childhealth Advocacy International, said any corridors must be safe and secure from fighting.
"It takes time if you are taking a lot of premature babies that have got lots of equipment attached to them to keep them alive you must take the mother as well as the baby".
He said: "Based on the number of births per year in Ukraine about 21,000 pregnant mothers need emergency care during delivery if they don't care emergency care in the form of caesarian section they will die and there babies will die.
"Around 42,000 newborn infants need intensive care and that cannot be undertaken in the cold in a basement, without electricity without water without food, it's an impossible situation."
"There needs to be an immediate ceasefire and the way forward is through the United Nations rather than NATO because NATO are not going to do it."
