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Defense officials from Chile convened a meeting at the bottom of the planet on Thursday in a bid to bolster their territorial claims in Antarctica as tensions escalate over Russia’s maneuvers in the polar region.

Lawmakers from Chile’s parliamentary defense committee flew to a desolate air base for a meeting billed as an assertion of national sovereignty.

AN UNUSUAL AUTUMN FREEZE GRIPS PARTS OF SOUTH AMERICA, GIVING CHILE ITS COLDEST MAY IN 74 YEARS

“We are going to be sitting in Antarctica in an act of sovereignty, of safeguarding and supporting our national integrity in the face of any threats,” said committee member Camila Flores, singling out Russia as posing such a threat.

The lawmakers revealed little about their talks at the glacier-filled base beyond saying they addressed “the prevailing geopolitical conditions” on the white continent that has vast mineral resources, fresh water reserves and no government.

The meeting comes amid a recent frenzy of media reports surrounding Russia’s purported discovery of massive oil reserves in Antarctica back in 2020, when the Russian polar research vessel Alexander Karpinsky reportedly uncovered some 500 billion barrels worth of crude oil. The issue resurfaced earlier this month in a U.K. parliamentary session where experts warned Russia’s geological surveys could jeopardize the decades-long ban on mining in the region.

The reports rattled Chile and Argentina — among the seven countries that assert claims of sovereignty over parts of the demilitarized continent. Russia’s surveys took place in the Weddell Sea, where Chile’s territorial claims overlap with those of Britain and Argentina, according to documents presented to the British parliament.

“We are going to continue defending what we believe is fair,” said Francisco Undurraga, head of Chile’s defense committee, condemning the “crafty aspirations” of nations rushing to assert greater influence over Antarctica in an increasingly energy-hungry world.

When reports of Russian resource-extraction projects surfaced earlier this month, Argentina demanded to know whether Russia had scientific or economic intentions. Chilean President Gabriel Boric promised to “firmly oppose any commercial exploitation of minerals and hydrocarbons.”

Historic tensions over Antarctic claims have also re-emerged between Boric’s left-wing government and Argentina’s far-right government.

In an effort to reshape Argentina’s foreign policy in line with the United States, Argentine President Javier Milei last month announced the construction of a southern naval base with U.S. involvement to help Argentina stake claim to Antarctica, drawing complaints from Chile’s foreign ministry.

Geopolitical competition is just the latest issue to test the 53-nation Antarctic Treaty, which in 1959 enshrined the territory as a scientific preserve used only for peaceful purposes.

Rising sea levels due to climate change, unregulated tourism and krill fishing in the Southern Ocean are just a few other challenges that the consensus-based system is struggling to address.

As the war enters its 819th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Friday, May 24, 2024.

Fighting

• At least seven people were killed and dozens more injured in a Russian missile attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and home to about one million people.
• Nearly 11,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the Kharkiv region since Russian forces began a cross-border ground offensive there on May 10, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
• Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said one woman was killed after a destroyed Ukrainian drone fell on her house. The Russian Ministry of Defence said 35 Ukrainian rockets and three drones had been shot down over the Belgorod region, which lies across the border from Kharkiv.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its forces had recaptured the small village of Andriivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The Ukrainian General Staff said later that its troops were repelling three Russian assaults in the area of Andriivka and nearby Novyi. Andriivka was liberated by Ukrainian soldiers in an offensive last September.
• Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the Russia-annexed Crimea peninsula, said two people were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack near Simferopol, the peninsula’s main administrative centre. Ukraine has not commented on the alleged attack. Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
• Russia said it brought down a Ukrainian drone in its central Tatarstan region, hundreds of kilometres from the two countries’ border.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russia arrested Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, deputy head of Russia’s General Staff, and a high-ranking defence official on corruption and “abuse of power” charges in a widening crackdown on corruption in military contracts. The two are being held in custody pending trial.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, for talks with President Alexander Lukashenko that are expected to focus on security and military exercises involving tactical nuclear weapons.
• Putin signed a decree allowing the confiscation of assets inside Russia belonging to the United States, its citizens and companies, to use as compensation over Western sanctions against Moscow.
• Russia jailed 36-year-old barman Vladimir Malina for 25 years for joining a unit of Russians fighting for Ukraine and carrying out sabotage of railway equipment.

• Russia jailed 20-year-old student Vladimir Belkovich, from Siberia’s Irkutsk region, to 13 years in prison for treason after he agreed to post leaflets on behalf of a pro-Ukraine partisan group.
• Thirteen Ukrainian children returned home from Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine with the cooperation of Qatar, officials in Kyiv said. Ukraine says about 20,000 Ukrainian children have been sent to Russia without the consent of their families or guardians.
• OVD-Info, a leading Russian rights group and protest monitoring network, said it had received a notice from YouTube threatening to block access in Russia to one of its video channels featuring news on the war in Ukraine.

Weapons

• Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba again called on the country’s Western allies to send seven Patriot air defence systems. “They are needed now, not tomorrow,” he said.
• The US is preparing a new $275m military aid package for Ukraine, which will include high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), as well as 155mm and 105mm high-demand artillery rounds, Javelin and AT-4 antitank systems, antitank mines, tactical vehicles and small arms.
• Russian jamming has prevented many of Ukraine’s relatively new long-range glide bombs from hitting their intended targets, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the challenges.