As the conflict in southern Ukraine escalates, Ukrainian officials say the humanitarian situation in occupied areas is deteriorating and Russian “terror” against civilians is intensifying.

This Monday, Yurii Sobolevsky, first deputy head of the Kherson regional administration, said that “teachers, doctors, civil servants, heads of residential communities” were in the crosshairs.

“Today, it is very difficult to calculate the system of the first to be in danger, because the categories of detainees are constantly expanding. The cases of arrests of people following a denunciation by collaborators are increasingly more frequent,” he added. said.

“The scale of the humanitarian disaster will only increase… In Kherson itself, the situation is much easier than in smaller towns, but in general the living conditions are already unbearable.”

Since the occupied areas are practically cut off from the outside world, it is difficult to assess the demand as well as the capacity of civilians to leave these areas.

Sobolevsky acknowledged the difficulty faced by residents of occupied areas under pressure to collaborate.

“The line between actions taken under conditions of extreme necessity and cooperation with the enemy is quite blurred,” he said. “People honestly don’t want to cross it, but rightly so many don’t understand exactly where it is.”

Sobolevsky told residents of Kherson that “the armed forces are close.”

The Ukrainian army has recently stepped up its attacks on Russian rear positions in Kherson and made modest progress with an offensive from the north.

A senior Ukrainian official said Monday that several senior Russian officials were killed in two violent attacks in the Kherson region over the weekend.

“Although our guys are working with surgical precision, there is always a risk of collateral damage to civilian infrastructure and, most importantly, a risk to civilian life and health,” he said.

“Leaving or staying is everyone’s decision and responsibility,” warned Sobolevsky.

“Some decide in principle to wait for the Armed Forces in their native walls, and this is also a form of protest and courage.”

Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the also busy Melitopol, said the situation in the city was becoming increasingly difficult.

“The occupiers are not allowing people to leave or enter the city,” he said.

Fedorov, who is no longer in Melitopol, said that after a relatively calm period Russian forces are “getting angry” and some are deserting.

“The collaborators did not leave [en público] since the military base was destroyed,” he said. “The main collaborating officers have not appeared in public for a week.

Fedorov said organized evacuations were impossible because the Russians did not approve of humanitarian convoys, but added that people using their own vehicles continued to arrive in Zaporizhia.

“As of today, between 150 and 200 people are being evacuated from our temporarily occupied city every day.”