Following joint statement for Ukraine, Russia accuses envoys of being 'provocative'

(Philstar.com)

August 25, 2022 - 5:40pm

A Ukrainian serviceman is seen in the window of a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on February 25, 2022. Russian forces reached the outskirts of Kyiv on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the invading troops were targeting civilians and explosions could be heard in the besieged capital. Pre-dawn blasts in Kyiv set off a second day of violence after Russian President Vladimir Putin defied Western warnings to unleash a full-scale ground invasion and air assault on Thursday that quickly claimed dozens of lives and displaced at least 100,000 people.

AFP / Daniel Leal

MANILA, Philippines — The Russian Embassy in the Philippines said blaming Moscow for the global energy and food crisis on top of saying that it undermined the international rules-based order is “provocative.”

“We consider it as provocative, full of false and groundless accusations and black propaganda against Russia,” the embassy said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

Official statement of the Russian Embassy in Manila, 25 August, 2022 pic.twitter.com/4NCzaCbiao

— Russian Embassy in the Philippines (@RusEmbManila) August 25, 2022

It comes just a day after diplomats from Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union showed solidarity behind Ukraine as the embattled nation commemorated its 31st anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union.

Ukraine’s independence day anniversary this year also marked six months since Russia invaded the country. The 20 foreign envoys called Russia’s aggression against Ukraine “brutal, unprovoked, and unjustifiable.”

READ: UN chief warns impact of Ukraine war on world is worsening

“The consequences of Russia’s illegal war are keenly felt in the Philippines, through increases in the prices of fuel, food, fertilizer, and other essential commodities. These effects are exacerbating poverty during a critical period of the country’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” the joint statement on Wenesday read.

But Russia maintained that the crises were the effects of “macroeconomic mistakes and Western sanctions.”

While the war is not the only cause of rising commodity and fuel prices in the country, the Philippines’ former energy chief already warned that pump prices in the country would rise even further if the Ukraine-Russia war persists.

READ: How Russia's war in Ukraine rocked the global economy

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has also warned that the war will affect commerce and clog up supply chains, with businessmen back home already identifying that the war has affected production and distribution of its raw materials such as fertilizers.

Some businesses have already alerted that they are affected by supply chain shortages.

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