Japan’s foreign minister has pledged millions of pounds’ worth of aid to Ukraine as the country continues to fight off a new onslaught of drone and missile strikes from Russia – making the announcement from a bomb shelter after an air raid alert.
Yoko Kamikawa met with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv earlier today in a previously unannounced trip to the country during a tour of Western allies.
During the visit, in which she also met president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she was forced to retreat into an underground bomb shelter after an air alert as she prepared to announce the gifting of $37million (£29m) of Japanese aid to a Nato Trust Fund.
In a hastily rearranged press conference surrounded by pipes and high voltage electrical equipment, Ms Kamikawa said the funding, which will support anti-air defences, would help peace to ‘return’ to the besieged country.
She also said Japan would donate generators and transformers to support Ukrainian infrastructure that has been crippled by recent heavy air strikes.
Japan’s foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa is guided along an underground corridor by Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba during an air raid alert in Kyiv
In extraordinary scenes, the minister had to announce Japanese aid to Ukraine from a hastily convened press conference underground
Ms Kamikawa said the aid was Japan’s latest contribution to the mission of returning peace to Ukraine
Ms Kamikawa also met Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the previously unannounced trip to the beseiged country
Ukraine has suffered a fresh onslaught of Russian missile and drone strikes over the New Year (pictured: firefighters tackling a blaze caused by a strike in Kyiv on January 2)
Kamikawa later tweeted that the meeting was ‘hastily moved’ underground following the air raid alert
Speaking through an interpreter, Ms Kamikawa said: ‘Russia has continued threats and attacks with missiles and drones in various locations, even on New Year’s Day.
‘Japan is determined to continue to support Ukraine so that peace can return.’
In a tweet from her official account on X, formerly Twitter, she said the meeting was ‘hastily moved to the underground shelter’ of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs following an air raid warning.
The donation of five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers will be gratefully received by Kyiv and the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, which were targeted with hundreds of missiles and drones over the New Year.
At least five civilians were killed and 135 were injured, according to Ukrainian officials; buildings were devastated in the blasts that also caused large fires.
The strikes are thought to be a respond to Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod on New Year’s Eve; though bungling Russian troops also bombed a village on their side of the border, 93 miles east of Ukraine.
Kamikawa also met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who offered condolences for Japan’s New Year’s Day earthquake, and thanked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ‘for elevating the level of relations’ with Ukraine during Japan’s G7 presidency in 2023.
Sitting alongside his visitor, Ukrainian foreign minister Mr Kuleba also noted Kyiv’s key ask of its allies, saying, ‘I informed my colleague … of Ukraine’s needs not only in aircraft, but above all in air defence systems.’
Kamikawa also visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where Russian forces are blamed for a 2022 massacre of civilians, saying she was “shocked” by what she saw.
She also went to Irpin, a past scene of heavy fighting.
Japan said last month that it would prepare to ship Patriot air defence missiles to the United States after revising its arms export guidelines, in the pacifist nation’s first major overhaul of such export curbs in nine years.
It still cannot ship weapons to countries at war, but the move could indirectly benefit Ukraine by boosting Washington’s capacity to provide military aid to its ally.
In all, Japan has committed to providing an estimated $7billion of aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Tokyo also intends to show its commitment to the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine under a public-private partnership by hosting a Japan-Ukraine conference on Feb. 19, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
Diplomat Ms Kamikawa’s tour of Western allies will see her visit Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada and Germany.
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