Shuichi Tokuda, Deputy Head of the European Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, in an interview called Russia guilty of the escalation of the situation around Ukraine.

“The situation there is escalating due to the fact that the Russian government is increasing its military presence near the borders with Ukraine. Of course, because of this, the attention of our government is also riveted to this aggravation, we look at this situation with very great concern,” he said.

Tokuda added that Tokyo wants to achieve a de-escalation around Ukraine in a diplomatic way, together with the United States and other allies. At the same time, Japan continues to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, he added.

Earlier, a Japanese military observer and lecturer at the University of Tokyo Yu Koizumi in an interview compared the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sovereignty of the Kuril Islands with the actions of the characters in Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice.

bbabo.Net