Tokyo, 23 June, /AJMEDIA/
Japan has increased staff numbers in its embassy in Ukraine to cope with its growing workload to support the Eastern European country and also plans to strengthen the building of its soon-to-be-relocated diplomatic mission amid Russia’s prolonged invasion.
As part of efforts to boost the functions of its diplomatic mission in Kyiv, the Foreign Ministry has tapped new personnel acting as liaison for the Group of Seven industrialized nations or in charge of the official development assistance tasked to help infrastructure rebuilding and humanitarian support for Ukraine.
Japan, which holds the G7’s rotating presidency this year, has been tasked to coordinate among its members over measures related to Ukraine following the Russian invasion since February 2022.
Under the G7 framework of sharing updates on and discussing support measures for Ukraine, Japan and other members of the grouping meet with Ukrainian ministers and officials several times over a month in Kyiv, the ministry said.
The G7, which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States, plus the European Union, has been united in condemning the war and maintaining economic sanctions on Russia.
Ministry officials have said Japan plans to soon relocate its embassy to another site in Kyiv and equip it with shelter functions due to concern over the building’s resistance to Russian missiles that frequently hit the capital.
While the embassy relocation had already been scheduled before the Ukraine war began, the government later decided to add the shelter functions to the new site.
Japan reopened its embassy in Kyiv last October as the security situation improved after a seven-month closure.
While the embassy was shut down, consular services continued at liaison offices set up in the western city of Lviv and the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow.
Currently, embassy staff dispatched from Japan are in rotating shifts, staying only for a few weeks at a time, to help ease the burden of working in a warzone.
