KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday 10 civilians, including a politician and two priests, taken prisoner in Russia and Belarus had been freed in a deal mediated by the Vatican.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners throughout their two-year conflict, typically in one-for-one swaps, but the release of civilian prisoners is rarer.
“We managed to return 10 more of our people from Russian captivity,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. It was not immediately clear if the release was part of an exchange deal involving Russian prisoners held in Ukraine.
Some of those released have been in prison since 2017, he said, arrested in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine that at the time were run by Moscow-backed separatists.
Russia has since annexed four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — alongside the Crimea peninsula which it seized in 2014.
The list of those freed included Nariman Dzhelal, a senior Crimean Tatar politician and two priests from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Five of them were originally arrested in Belarus, Russia’s close ally, including on charges of aiding Kyiv’s army by providing information on Russian military movements.
Russia invaded Ukraine through Belarus at the start of the war and although Minsk has not joined Russia’s offensive, the two countries’ militaries are closely linked.
“They have all been released and are now back home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
“I would also like to note the Vatican’s efforts to bring these people home,” he added, without elaborating.
Russia releases 10 Ukrainian civilian prisoners: Zelensky
https://arab.news/76wwm
Russia releases 10 Ukrainian civilian prisoners: Zelensky
- “We managed to return 10 more of our people from Russian captivity,” Zelensky said
- Some of those released have been in prison since 2017
Philippines discovers new gas deposit to boost depleted reserves
- Source near Malampaya field believed to contain 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas
- It will not take much time to access the gas, expert says, as infrastructure is ready
MANILA: The Philippines on Monday announced a new natural gas discovery, with the reservoir near the country’s largest offshore site estimated to be enough to power about 5.7 million households per year.
About 2.8 billion cubic meters (98 billion cubic feet) of gas were found 5km east of the Malampaya field near the island of Palawan, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a Facebook video.
“This is equivalent to nearly 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. That means it could supply power to more than 5.7 million households, 9,500 buildings, or nearly 200,000 schools,” Marcos said.
“This helps Malampaya’s contribution and strengthens our domestic gas supply for many years to come. Initial testing showed that the well flowed at 60 million cubic feet (1.7 million cubic meters) per day.”
Malampaya, discovered in 1989 and operational since 2001, is the Philippines’ most important natural gas field, located off the west coast of Palawan Island. It is also a key part of the country’s energy infrastructure.
It supplies natural gas for electricity generation in Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, powering several major plants.
Prime Energy Resources Development, which manages the Malampaya project, said in a statement that the new reservoir, Malampaya East-1, was discovered by a “a fully Filipino-led team, reflecting the country’s growing capability in upstream energy development.”
Prime Energy’s well data indicate that Malampaya East-1 volumes are equivalent to about one-third of the remaining producible gas volumes at the original Malampaya.
Against the backdrop of Malampaya’s decline, it will help to secure the country’s gas supplies. It will also keep operational the expensive infrastructure that was installed to operate the legacy field.
“The original Malampaya was like 2.3 trillion cubic feet, so it’s like 4 percent of the original find. I still think that is significant in light of the decline of the Malampaya gas field,” said Alberto Dalusung III, energy transition adviser at the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.
The new gas discovery benefits from ready access to processing facilities such as the 504 km undersea pipeline that was built for Malampaya, which will make it available sooner.
Dalusung estimated it would take up to two years for Filipino consumers to benefit from the new resources.
“The infrastructure is already there,” he said. “You don’t have to build the pipeline. All you have to do is find new gas resources, which we did.”
