THE Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said a consular team from the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw, Poland is now in Ukraine to supervise requests for relocation or repatriation of Filipinos in the conflict-torn eastern European country amid warnings by the United States of a possible Russian invasion.
On Monday, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to a summit over Ukraine, but the Kremlin later said there were no concrete plans for a summit.
A summit might offer a possible path out of Europe’s biggest military crisis in decades.
However, both Washington and Moscow played down hopes of a breakthrough, and satellite imagery appeared to show Russian deployments closer to Ukraine’s border than before.
Macron’s office said the President had pitched to both leaders a summit on “security and strategic stability in Europe.”
The White House said in a statement that Biden had accepted the meeting “in principle” but only “if an invasion hasn’t happened.”
Some 380 Filipinos are living and working in Ukraine, most in the western city of Lviv near the Polish border. The embassy in Poland exercises jurisdiction over Ukraine as Manila has no embassy in Ukraine.
The DFA said the two-man team that arrived Thursday in Lviv would ensure faster coordination with members of the Filipino community and relevant Ukrainian authorities.
The DFA said on the first day of the mission, the embassy team sent off two Filipinos on their repatriation flight from Lviv to Manila.
“They also met with two groups of `kababayans’ who temporarily relocated to the Lviv area from Kyiv as precautionary measure,” the DFA added.
Another group of Filipinos temporarily relocated to the Ivano-Frankivsk area from Kyiv was also met by the embassy team.
Last week, the first batch of six Filipinos, who sought Philippine government assistance for repatriation, have returned to Manila from Ukraine.
The DFA said the team will continue to monitor the situation in Ukraine as well as connect with the Filipinos in the country who have registered with the embassy in Poland.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said government is reaching out to countries with common borders with Ukraine to ensure the safe passage of Filipinos if the need for evacuation or repatriation arises.
Western countries accuse Russia of planning an invasion of its neighbor. Moscow denies planning any attack but has demanded security guarantees including a promise that Ukraine would never join NATO.
Nerves were further frayed when the Belarusian defence ministry announced on Sunday that Russia would extend military drills in Belarus that had been due to end. Russia has tens of thousands of troops there, north of the Ukrainian border.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that a phone call or meeting between Putin and Biden could be set up at any time, but there were no concrete plans yet for a summit. Tensions were growing, but diplomatic contacts were active and a meeting of foreign ministers was possible this week.
The White House said in a statement that Biden had accepted the meeting “in principle” but only “if an invasion hasn’t happened.”
“We are always ready for diplomacy,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences, should Russia instead choose war.”
Western countries are preparing sanctions they say would be far-reaching against Russian companies and individuals in the event that Russia invades, including steps to bar US financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks, people familiar with the matter said.
Macron’s office and the White House said the substance of the plan would be worked out by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting planned for Feb. 24.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Twitter that he would hold talks with Lavrov later on Monday.
Ukraine welcomed a possible summit between but said it must be included in any decisions aimed at resolving the crisis.
“No one can resolve our issue without us,” Ukraine’s top security official Oleksiy Danilov told a briefing. “Everything should happen with our participation.”
Macron’s announcement followed a volley of phone calls between Macron, Biden, Putin, Zelenskiy and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
US-based satellite imagery company Maxar on Sunday reported multiple new deployments of Russian military units in forests, farms, and industrial areas as little as 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
Blinken said the extension of the exercises in Belarus made him more worried that Russia was on the brink of an attack.
Washington has also repeatedly raised concerns that Russia could manufacture a pretext for an invasion with a so-called false flag attack designed to look as if it had been carried out by Ukraine. Russia accuses the West of hysteria.
Sporadic shelling across the line dividing Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east has intensified since Thursday, with both sides trading blame. — With Reuters
