Protesters attack buses carrying Wuhan evacuees in Ukraine

As global fears and misconceptions spread about the coronavirus outbreak that originated in the city, protesters blocked roads in the Ukrainian town of Noviy Sanzhari, where evacuees are to be monitored for two weeks at a medical center. Ukraine has no diagnosed cases of the novel coronavirus.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said that "aggressive citizens" began to pelt the buses with stones, and that one man tried to hit police with a car.

"Those people who today threw stones at the evacuees ... and law enforcement officers, injured nine police officers, one of them has serious injuries, we will make a decision on their punishment," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said.

Police opened criminal proceedings after the clash, the ministry said.

Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have sought to ease tensions since the clash.

Zelensky urged Ukrainians to remember that "we are all human" and there was no danger, in a statement reported by Reuters.

"But there is another danger that I would like to mention. The danger of forgetting that we are all human and we are all Ukrainian," he said, according to the news agency.

The bulk of worldwide infected cases of the virus, which stands at over 76,600, are in mainland China. At least 2,200 people have died from the virus.