MANILA – The Philippine Embassy in Warsaw, Poland is in touch with the Filipino community in Ukraine, in coordination with the Honorary Consulate General in Kyiv, amid heightened tensions and the United States warning about a possible Russian invasion.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Cultural Diplomacy Gonar Musor said approximately 380 Filipino nationals are living in Ukraine.

“Most are in Kyiv and its environs and are therefore located far from the eastern border near Russia,” he said in a statement on Saturday.

Musor said they are “encouraged to contact the embassy, report any untoward incident they might observe in their respective areas, and continue monitoring their Filipino friends through social media.”

A deployment ban was imposed by Manila since 2014 when political crisis hit the Eastern European nation and Russia annexed Crimea.

In the early weeks this year, tensions escalated anew following reports that Moscow deployed more than 100,000 troops and heavy weapons close to Ukraine’s border which, according to the US, are enough to invade the country “at any time.”

As this developed, Washington, DC and several other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea and Japan, have urged their nationals to evacuate Ukraine immediately.

No similar advisory as of this posting has been issued by the Philippines.

However, an Anadolu news agency report quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying the imminent invasion of Ukraine is a “mass disinformation campaign”.

According to the United Nations (UN), the eight-year conflict has already claimed the lives of more than 14,000, including approximately 3,000 civilians.

About 1.5 million people have been internally displaced since 2014.

“No one is watching the current diplomatic efforts more than the people of Ukraine,” UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said in a previous statement.

“They have endured a conflict that has taken over 14,000 lives since 2014 and that tragically is still far from resolution. It is painfully obvious that any new escalation in or around Ukraine would mean more needless killing and destruction,” DiCarlo added. Philippine News Agency