President Marcos on Ukraine: Each nation’s sovereignty must be protected

Washington – President Marcos has emphasized the need to protect the sovereignty of each nation as the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rages on.

Marcos yesterday noted that the Philippines has been clear in its support for the United Nations resolutions that were passed during the onset of the war in Ukraine.

The Philippines backed a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during an emergency session of the UN General Assembly last year.

“We respect the sovereignty and territoriality of every single nation in the world. And that applies most certainly because they are in this incredibly critical situation where there is an outright war going on,” Marcos said at a forum held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here.

“These are some of the shared values that I spoke about when it comes to the US for one, but also... member-states of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the countries around Asia, I think we are in full agreement that we must continue to protect the sovereignty, not just sovereign rights, but the sovereignty of each nation, no matter where they are,” he added.

Marcos said the situation in Ukraine “cannot continue” and is “something that is really anachronistic in the modern world.”

“And so we must continue to present the united front because... the war in Ukraine has affected everyone, strangely enough, because it’s not something that we expected,” he said, adding that the conflict has affected the lives of ordinary Filipinos.

“I speak in terms of ASEAN, I speak in terms of Asia that we are all shoulder-to-shoulder and continuing the rights of every sovereign nation to protect its borders.”

Last February, Marcos spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone and expressed hope that a peaceful resolution to the conflict would be reached.

“I told him (Zelensky) that we in the Philippines are watching with admiration, the bravery and the nationalism that has been displayed by the Ukrainians during this crisis and that we join in his effort to reach a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict in his country,” he said.

“Mr. President, we are with you in your search for peace,” Marcos tweeted at the time.

As of April 23, about 8,500 civilians have been killed while more than 14,000 others were injured in the war in Ukraine, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.