MANILA — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced on Tuesday that it was working with official counterparts and pertinent government agencies to confirm a claim that a Filipino national was killed while fighting alongside Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

According to AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, the military has not yet received formal confirmation of the reported death.

A man named only as “John Patrick,” a Filipino national, was murdered during an attack close to the town of Novoselivka in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk area, according to military information released on Monday by Ukraine’s Main information Directorate (HUR).

Millions of people have been displaced and entire Ukrainian cities are in ruins as a result of the war, which is now in its fifth year.

In recent weeks, US-led attempts to put an end to the bloodiest battle in Europe since World War II have accelerated, but both sides are still at odds over the crucial question of territory in a post-war settlement.

As part of a settlement, Russia, which occupies around 20% of Ukraine, is demanding complete control of the eastern Donbas region. However, Kyiv has cautioned that giving up ground will give Moscow more power.

Zelensky stated in his speech on New Year’s Eve that his nation desired an end to the conflict, but not at “any cost,” and that any deal would require robust security assurances to prevent future Russian invasions.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the fight has been going on for four years and is still the biggest ongoing conflict in Europe. Both sides regularly use information operations to create stories about foreign fighters and recruiting, and tens of thousands of combatants and civilians have been slain.

Philippine officials have reiterated that they only accept verifiable information from reliable sources and that it is too soon to consider allegations made on the battlefield to be conclusive evidence of a Filipino casualty.

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