Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi has accused international aid organizations of failing to properly prepare for Russia's attack on Ukraine.
"Not one international organization was prepared, although everyone has been talking about a possible Russian attack for half a year," Sadovyi told Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
"Probably because the Western intelligence agencies said that the war would only last two days and that Ukraine would be occupied by the Russians without resistance."
To date, he said there are no "effective international emergency plans."
Lviv is about 80 kilometres from the border with NATO member Poland. The city has become a staging point for refugees, diplomats and media since the war began on February 24.
"In the first 10 days we took in all the refugees who wanted to stay here. Now all the hotels, youth hostels and flats are full," Sadovyi told the newspaper.
"We have accommodated people in about 500 schools, gymnasiums, theatres, cultural centres or community centres. With 200,000 people, our capacities were exhausted."
In the greater Lviv region, he said there were even more people taking refuge.
The most urgent need at the moment is money to provide food, medicine, temporary housing and mobile hygiene facilities, the mayor said.
"We can't house people in a gym or a theatre stage forever. We have already set aside quite a few dozen hectares of land to put up such houses."
