For the first time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Yoko Kamikawa, arrived in Ukraine. She had to make a statement to the media from a shelter due to the missile threat.
On Sunday, January 7, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Yoko Kamikawa, arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit. She visited Bucha, after which she met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, and together they addressed the media. Due to an air raid alarm, they had to do this in the basement.
According to Kuleba, during the negotiations, they discussed Ukraine’s needs in air defense assets.
“The main Russian military strategy is as follows: if you can’t capture something, you must completely destroy it. They cannot capture us, so they attempt to destroy us. However, even this will not succeed for Russia due to the support in strengthening air defense means that we feel from our partners, who are sending us both new air defense systems and missiles for them,” he said.
“Even now we are here due to the threat of a ballistic strike. And this is another reminder of the urgent need to protect Ukrainian skies as quickly as possible,” the minister added.
In addition to air defense systems, Kuleba and Kamikawa discussed the need to use frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine.
The Japanese minister also mentioned that her country has handed over five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers to Ukraine. “Today, I will participate in the ceremony of handing over this equipment,” she said.
“Based on my visit, Japan plans to continue strengthening bilateral cooperation between our countries,” concluded Kamikawa.