19 more Filipino seafarers arrive from Ukraine — DFA exec

Nineteen more Filipino seafarers from Ukraine have arrived in the Philippines, bringing to 329 the number of Filipinos repatriated following the Russian invasion, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.

In a tweet, Foreign Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said a total of 19 seafarers of Chariana L arrived in the country on Wednesday night.

Arriola reported that at least 41 others were also evacuated.

To date, the DFA has assisted 370 Filipinos in Ukraine, she added.

Ukraine claimed Thursday that Russia had destroyed a theater harboring more than a thousand people in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, with the toll as yet unknown.

For days, Russian forces have bombarded the city — which once had about half a million residents — cutting power, food and water supplies.

Russian forces on Wednesday targeted a railway station in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia, where thousands of refugees from Mariupol were trying to move further away from the fighting. — Richa Noriega/RSJ, GMA News