With Western powers warning of imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, the Department of Foreign Affairs through the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw, Poland dispatched a consular team to Lviv, Ukraine last February 17, to enable faster coordination with the Filipino community and relevant authorities in the country, for possible evacuation and repatriation.
This was after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden have agreed to a summit—to be held only if Moscow does not invade Ukraine, France announced Monday following a frantic new round of diplomacy to avert an all-out war.
In a statement Monday, the DFA stressed that the move was necessary to guarantee immediate assistance to Filipino nationals for their possible repatriation.
As of June 2019, there were 342 Filipinos in Ukraine and the Philippines has been actively attending to its nationals and promoting the country’s interests through the Honorary Consulate in Kiev. As of March 2020, around 200 Ukrainians are residing in the Philippines.
Today, the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw exercises jurisdiction over Ukraine.
Lviv is a city in the western part of Ukraine, close to the Polish border.
Two personnel from the Embassy, composed of a Consul and an ATN Officer, in coordination with the Philippine Honorary Consulate General in Kyiv, arrived in Lviv last Thursday. The Embassy team immediately established an emergency contact base.
The two are also directed to monitor the situation in Ukraine as well as connect with the Filipinos in the country who have registered with the embassy.
On the first day of the mission, the Embassy team sent off two Filipino nationals on their repatriation flight from Lviv to Manila.
It also met with two groups of kababayans who temporarily relocated to the Lviv area from Kyiv as a precautionary measure.
Another group of Filipino nationals temporarily relocated to the Ivano-Frankivsk area from Kyiv was also met by the Embassy team.
The Philippine Embassy in Warsaw keeps close coordination with the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs and the Philippine Honorary Consulate General in Kyiv in arranging the repatriation of Filipinos who have chosen to avail of the Philippine government’s voluntary repatriation program from Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Filipino diplomat Albert del Rosario, foreign secretary of the Philippines from 2011 to 2016, called on Russia to “respect the sovereignty of Ukraine and the sovereign right and will” of the Ukrainians to decide for themselves their country’s fate.
Del Rosario, also chair of the Makati City-based Stratbase ADR Institute, also called on Russia to “respect international law as we all live in one community of nations.”
In his opinion piece, del Rosario said: “Sovereignty is a core norm of that community, and rule of law is the tie that binds all of us in that unity.
A violation in one part of the body causes pain in another. We are all intertwined in that one precarious community.
“Whatever happens in the Baltics would have consequential implications in Asia.”