Zelenskyy spoke on Friday of recognizing Japan’s territorial integrity and called on the world community to also recognize the area as Japanese. “An important decision was made today. It’s fair, legally impeccable. Historical,” he said in a video distributed in Kyiv. The Ukrainian parliament had previously passed a corresponding resolution. The Russian occupiers must be driven out everywhere and defeated as aggressors, Zelenskyj said. This is the only way wars can be prevented in the future. Zelenskyy was reacting to the annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia.
The Soviet Union conquered the areas in the north of Japan as the victorious power in World War II. Japan and Russia, the legal successors of the Soviet Union, still have no peace treaty because of the territorial dispute. “Russia has no right to these areas,” Zelenskyy said. Everyone in the world knows that, action must be taken now.
The conflict between Japan and Russia had recently intensified. For example, Russia banned Japanese ships from fishing off the four southernmost Kuril Islands, which are disputed between the two countries. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Japan not only participated in Western sanctions against the giant empire, but also spoke of an “illegal occupation” of the islands for the first time in 20 years.
In his video message, Zelenskyi again reported on progress in the Ukrainian defense offensive. In the past week, 776 square kilometers of land have been liberated; 29 towns in total, including six in the Luhansk region, he said. Villages in which the occupiers had recently held mock referendums on joining Russia are now again under Ukrainian control. Since the beginning of the offensive, a total of 2,434 square kilometers and 96 settlements have come back under Ukrainian control. The liberation of the territories continues, he said.
Source: Nachrichten
