KYIV: Ukraine said on Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Russia’s Kursk region following a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine’s army remains in the Kursk region more than a month after launching the assault, in which President Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv has taken control of about 100 settlements.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had instructed his ministry to formally invite the UN and ICRC to work in the Kursk region when he visited the northeast Ukrainian region of Sumy on Sunday. The ministry confirmed that it had issued the requests.
“Ukraine is ready to facilitate their work and prove its adherence to international humanitarian law,” Sybiha said on X after the visit to Sumy, from where Ukrainian forces launched the cross-borer attack.
He said the Ukrainian army was ensuring humanitarian assistance and safe passage to civilians in the Kursk region.
The Foreign Ministry said in a written statement that the invitations had been issued to the ICRC and UN, “taking into account the humanitarian situation and the need to properly ensure basic human rights in the territory of the Kursk region.”
The ministry said it had asked the ICRC to monitor Ukraine’s compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, which cover the protection of victims of international armed conflicts.
Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, did not immediately comment on the invitations. It was not immediately clear how or whether the UN or ICRC had responded.
Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported on Monday that ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric had arrived on a visit to Moscow and planned to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Last week, Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the ICRC and wounded two others in a village in the frontline Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said. Spoljaric has condemned the attacks.
Ukraine asks UN, ICRC to join humanitarian effort in Russia’s Kursk region
https://arab.news/va46u
Ukraine asks UN, ICRC to join humanitarian effort in Russia’s Kursk region
- Last week, Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the ICRC and wounded two others in a village in the frontline Donetsk region
Philippines steps up security at newly found gas field near South China Sea
- New reservoir believed to contain enough gas to power 5.7m households per year
- Philippines, China have been involved in a series of tense incidents in disputed waters
MANILA: The Philippine military and coastguard have stepped up security around a newly announced natural gas discovery, Malampaya East-1, off the island of Palawan, bordering the disputed South China Sea.
The undersea reservoir is estimated to contain about 2.8 billion cubic meters (98 billion cubic feet) of gas, enough to power about 5.7 million households per year.
It was discovered around 5 km east of the main Malampaya gas field, the Philippines’ most important natural gas field, which supplies fuel to major power plants on the main island of Luzon and was projected to decline considerably in a few years.
“Malampaya is not just an installation, it is a lifeline of our energy security,” Col. Francel Padilla, spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told reporters late on Tuesday.
“When we protect Malampaya, we are not only defending our territory. We are protecting the nation’s power source, economy, and future.”
A joint task force commanded by the AFP will conduct “continuous monitoring, readiness and presence to ensure that no (hostile) force will disrupt our critical infrastructure,” she added.
The new gas field discovery comes as the Philippines faces a growing Chinese presence in the South China Sea in recent years, with their coast guards and navy ships having been involved in a series of tense incidents.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the Philippine Coast Guard to “keep a tight watch” over Malampaya to secure the country’s energy resources, Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said during a press briefing last week.
The PCG has since announced the deployment of its 97-meter offshore patrol vessel to secure Malampaya East, along with two 44-meter patrol vessels and aerial assets.
Malampaya East-1 lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, a 370 km stretch of water from the country’s coastline, where Manila has exclusive rights to explore and harness resources under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
It is located near the disputed waters of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway and resource-rich area where the Philippines, China and several other countries have overlapping claims.
Beijing has continued to maintain its expansive claims of the area, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that China’s historical assertion to it had no basis.
