Tokyo, 1 October, /AJMEDIA/
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday that Japan considers Russia’s annexation of parts of southern and eastern Ukraine a violation of international law.
Kishida also told reporters after his telephone conversation with Zelenskyy that Japan will consider further sanctions on Russia and continue supporting Ukraine in efforts to end the ever-intensifying war, launched by Moscow in February, as soon as possible.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees to recognize the independence of two southern, partly Russia-controlled Ukrainian regions, in a move seen as an escalation of Moscow’s seven-month-old war.
With the decrees over Zaporizhzhia and Kherson immediately taking effect Thursday local time, Putin is preparing to sign a treaty later Friday that would formally annex them along with two occupied regions in eastern Ukraine.
Voting in what Western officials say are sham referendums to be used as a pretext for Russian annexation has taken place in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as well as Donetsk and Luhansk in the east.
Ukraine has condemned the votes while leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations issued a statement vowing they will “never recognize” the referendums or an annexation.
Earlier Friday in Tokyo, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also lambasted Russia, saying that Moscow’s move “infringes on Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
Japan will “never overlook unilateral action that changes the status quo by force” and will work closely with the G-7 and the international community to support Ukraine, Hayashi told reporters.
The G-7 major developed nations have been ramping up pressure on Moscow, tightening economic sanctions against it and pledging to reduce their reliance on Russian energy resources. Russia launched military attacks on its neighbor on Feb. 24.
Speaking to Japanese lawmakers by video link in March, Zelenskyy asked Japan to ban trade with Russia to stop what he called the “tsunami” of its invasion into Ukraine, as he stressed the need to ramp up sanctions to punish Moscow.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has pushed up energy and food prices across the globe, which has created a drag on the economy of resource-poor Japan. Japan depends on imports for more than 90 percent of its energy needs.
As the yen’s rapid depreciation has also driven up import costs while wages in Japan have remained stagnant, the Kishida administration has been urged to implement measures to ease the negative impact of price hikes.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, relations between Tokyo and Moscow have deteriorated sharply.
In early September, Russia scrapped an agreement with Japan to allow visa-free visits by Japanese former residents of disputed islands off Hokkaido. Russia has criticized Japan for participating in Western sanctions against Moscow in response to the war in Ukraine.
The dispute over the islands — Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group — has prevented the two nations from signing a post-World War II peace treaty.
The row stems from the seizure of the territory by the Soviet Union, Russia’s predecessor state, in the weeks following Japan’s surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.
The G-7 is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union.
