Iryna Vereshchuk, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine has said that no humanitarian evacuations will take place on Monday as a result of potential provocations from Russia.

According to Kyiv independence, Vereshchuk said they had received intelligence reports that Russia plans to stage provocations along evacuation routes.

Reuters on Monday cited the mayor of Mariupol saying all civilians must be evacuated from the encircled Ukrainian city to allow them escape a humanitarian catastrophe.

What the Deputy prime minister and mayor are saying

The deputy prime minister noted that not opening any corridor on Monday was for the safety of the people.

“Our intelligence has reported possible ‘provocations’ by the occupiers on the humanitarian corridor routes. So, for reasons of public safety, we are not opening any humanitarian corridors today,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

The Mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko noted that 26 buses waiting to evacuate civilians from Mariupol were on standby.

Speaking further he said 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the southern port city on the Sea of Azov.

“The situation in the city remains difficult. People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe,” Boichenko said on national television.

“We need to completely evacuate Mariupol,” the mayor said. “The Russian Federation is playing with us. We are in the hands of the invaders.”

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