Riyaz ul Khaliq and Burc Eruygur
22 March 2023•Update: 22 March 2023
ISTANBUL
Japan has pledged $30 million in aid for war-hit Ukraine to acquire "non-lethal equipment," public broadcaster NHK reported.
During an unannounced trip to Kyiv on Tuesday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and announced that Tokyo will make $30 million available through NATO trust funds to help Ukraine acquire non-lethal equipment.
Kishida, who condemned Russia for its war saying it undermines the foundation of international order, promised that Japan will deliver assistance worth $7.1 billion it has pledged to Ukraine, and announced a new grant aid of $470 million in energy and other fields.
Lauding Japan’s support, which has imposed economic sanctions on Moscow in line with many Western countries, Zelenskyy underlined the “importance of stepping up global leadership to protect the principles of the UN Charter and international security.”
“The war in Ukraine and the international order has provoked threats and risks that the world has not witnessed in decades,” said the Ukrainian president, according to a statement from Kyiv.
“We are working with our partners to prevent different nations in different parts of the world from having to suffer the brutal consequences of Russian aggression for decades to come, such as destabilization of international relations, social chaos and even provoked mass starvation,” Zelenskyy added.
The two leaders also underlined the importance of Black Sea grain deal brokered by Türkiye and the UN.
Kishida flew to Ukraine via Poland on a private business jet rather than a government plane "to minimize the prime minister's entourage, and strictly control the outflow of information."
He flew to Rzeszow in southeastern Poland around midnight on Monday from India, where he held a meeting with his Indian counterpart and invited him to the G-7 summit in Hiroshima this May. Zelenskyy has also accepted Kishida’s invitation to attend the meeting via video link.
Zelenskyy said “new sanction packages should continue this path of restoring global security and reducing the potential of Russian terror. Sanctions must be faster than Russia's ability to adapt to them.”
