The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol has expressed his concerns over an imminent “humanitarian catastrophe” as Russia blocked aid while over 100,000 people still requiring evacuation.

Mayor Vadym Boichenko said in a televised press briefing Monday that no buses for the organized evacuation of residents were able to reach the city and humanitarian cargo was also blocked from reaching the locals who were in need. 

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“Unfortunately, the situation in Mariupol was, is and remains difficult. Today we are on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe: the city has been without electricity, without water, without food, without medicines for more than a month. Therefore, we insist that Mariupol should be given a complete evacuation and access to the city,” Boichenko said during an online briefing.

At the same time, as the mayor emphasized, “the Russian Federation is blocking all humanitarian cargoes that are moving in the direction of Mariupol.”

Not a single humanitarian cargo has reached the city, the mayor claimed.

“To date, not a single bus that should have reached Mariupol to evacuate the city’s residents has also reached the city,” he said.

Boichenko said that almost 90,000 Mariupol residents have been evacuated along the Berdiansk-Zaporizhia corridor. But there are more than 100,000 inhabitants still in the city.

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“We beg the international community to unite for the complete evacuation of the inhabitants of Mariupol,” Boichenko said.

The Mayor of Mariupol also said that on Sunday representatives of the International Red Cross went to Mariupol, but they were detained in Manhush.

“Today, Mrs. Vereschuk is working to ensure that they are released so that they can get to the territory controlled by Ukraine,” the mayor of Mariupol added.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Red Cross confirmed that their team could not reach Mariupol because of security conditions.

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Boichenko also said that 90% of the infrastructure in the city is destroyed and 40% is unrecoverable.