The first batch of Filipino repatriates from Ukraine arrived in Manila Friday as shellfire rang out in the Eastern European as the army and Moscow-backed separatists accused each other of provocations and US warnings of an imminent Russian invasion stoked international tension.
“The Philippine government, through the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw, provided funding assistance to the six Filipinos who voluntarily requested to be repatriated to the country,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Four of the repatriates came from Kyiv while the other two took their flights from Lviv.
“The Philippine Embassy in Warsaw, which is in active coordination with its Philippine Honorary Consulate General in Kyiv, is also cooperating closely with the Philippine Consulate General in Istanbul to facilitate repatriation,” the DFA said.
“This is to ensure that government assistance is available to the group at all transit points,” it added.
On Friday, an AFP reporter near the frontline between government forces and rebel-held territory in the Lugansk region heard the thud of explosions and saw damaged civilian buildings.
All eyes were on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next move as Moscow announced he will oversee a weekend drill of “strategic forces”—ballistic and cruise missiles.
Russia has demanded that the United States withdraw all forces from NATO members in central and eastern Europe and is turning up the pressure on Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden is to hold video talks with Western allies, including the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and NATO, later on Friday to discuss the crisis.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations that Washington has intelligence showing that Moscow could order an invasion in the “coming days.”
Russia has denied it has any such plan and claims to have begun withdrawing some of the 149,000 troops that Ukraine now says are on its borders.
But Putin has done nothing to dial down tensions, ordering the missile drills even as there are reports of an increase in shelling from Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Visiting Poland, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was seeing “more” Russian forces moving into the Ukraine border region despite Moscow’s announcements.
On Thursday, a shell punched a hole in the wall of a kindergarten in government-held territory near the frontline in the Ukrainian village of Stanytsia Luganska.
The 20 children and 18 adults inside escaped serious injury but the attack sparked international howls of protest.
“The children were eating breakfast when it hit,” school laundry worker Natalia Slesareva told AFP at the scene.
“It hit the gym. After breakfast, the children had gym class. So, another 15 minutes, and everything could have been much, much worse.”
On Friday, part of the village remained without electricity. Konstantin Reutsky, director of the Vostok SOS aid agency, told AFP that houses and a shop had been damaged.
The Ukrainian joint command center said the rebels had violated the ceasefire 20 times between midnight and 9:00 a.m. Friday, while the Donetsk and Lugansk separatist groups said the army had fired 27 times.
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations will hold a virtual conference next Thursday with the Ukraine crisis high on the agenda, Germany, which holds the group’s rotating presidency, said Friday.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Moscow needed to show “serious steps towards de-escalation.”
“With an unprecedented deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine and Cold War demands, Russia is challenging fundamental principles of the European peace order,” Baerbock said.