Japan will incur “the most serious consequences” for the provision of Patriot air defense missiles expected to aid Ukraine, according to a prominent Russian diplomat.
“In connection with this, we would like to warn that if Japanese missiles fall into the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, such actions will be viewed as unambiguously hostile toward Russia and will entail the most serious consequences for Japan in the context of bilateral ties,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, per state-run Tass.
DESANTIS CAMPAIGN ON THE BRINK AS IOWA CAUCUSES NEAR
A patchwork array of air defense systems has played a critical role since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022. Russia’s persistent attempts to knock out Ukrainian energy infrastructure have put pressure on air defense interceptor stockpiles, especially the missiles for the Patriot battery, the “most advanced” U.S.-made air defense system, making Japan’s cache of missiles a treasure trove for American officials trying to supply Ukraine.
“It helps us manage our inventory of Patriots, given Ukraine and the Middle East, with a little more flexibility and strategic deployment,” Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. envoy to Japan, told the Wall Street Journal last week.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been an emphatic supporter of Ukraine throughout the full-scale war, as he fears that a Russian victory would persuade China or North Korea that they can attack their neighbors and trust their nuclear arsenals to deter the United States from intervening on behalf of an ally. Japanese law bans the export of weapons to a warzone, but Kishida’s team is expected to skirt that restriction by sending the interceptor missiles to the U.S., thereby enabling President Joe Biden’s administration to allocate more U.S.-owned interceptors to the Ukrainian forces.
“This decision has a significant meaning to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday. “And it will contribute to Japan and the Indo-Pacific region’s peace and stability.”
Ukrainian forces have demonstrated gaps in Russia’s air defenses as well, especially in Crimea, the annexed Ukrainian peninsula and traditional headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“This time, the Novocherkassk landing ship has met the same fate as the Moskva cruiser,” Ukrainian Air Force Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk said on Tuesday after video of the purported explosion of the ship circulated on social media.
Good morning, Crimea! pic.twitter.com/eG0SERvlk4
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) December 26, 2023
Zakharova argued that the provision of air defense missiles would make Japan responsible for additional Ukrainians killed by Russian forces during the war.
“Military supplies to [the Ukrainian government], both direct and indirect, only lead to the prolongation of its agony and further increase the number of innocent victims and atrocities of the [Ukrainian government], the responsibility for which will be fully shared by the Japanese government,” she said.
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Russia’s bombardments of civilian infrastructure have intensified in recent weeks, including a Tuesday attack that “severely damaged” the energy system in Kherson, a city liberated by Ukrainian forces in November 2022.
On Tuesday night, “Russians brutally shelled the Kherson railway station as over 100 civilians were trying to evacuate after enduring hours of attacks,” Ambassador Bridget Brink, who leads the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, wrote on social media. “It is another reminder when most people are at home marking the holidays with family, Russia’s barbaric attacks continue in Ukraine.”
