It is too early for people who left their homes in Kyiv and surrounding areas to return, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar has said, even as the border service said it has seen an uptick in the number of people returning to the country.
The Kyiv region is still facing difficult times, Maylar said, describing the situation as dynamic.
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"It is too early to return, even to Kyiv," she said, speaking to reporters by phone.
The governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, also said it was not yet recommended that residents of the Kyiv region return home. He suggested that the end of May was a more realistic time for their safe return.
The Kyiv region, including the communities of Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel on the outskirts of Kyiv, was liberated early this month.
The comments came as Ukraine's border force said between 25,000 and 30,000 people return to Ukraine each day.
Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, told journalists that people who return say they see that the situation is safer, especially in the western regions, and they can no longer stay abroad.
There are more women, children, and elderly people returning than in the early days of the conflict, when those arriving were almost exclusively men, Demchenko added.
The shift comes after Russian forces retreated from near Kyiv in preparation for an expected offensive in the east of the country.
The UN says that more than 4.6 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since Russia launched the attack on February 24. About half crossed into Poland, and the rest went to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Moldova.
Even though the number of people crossing the borders has declined, those who have been crossing have been in a more vulnerable state, have lesser means, and have also had less of a plan as to where they might go, UN refugee agency spokesman Matt Saltmarsh said in Geneva.
Women and children account for 90 percent of those who have left Ukraine, according to the UN.