Russia halts WWII-era peace talks with Japan over Ukraine sanctions

The pacifistic island nation of Japan surprised the world by joining Western efforts to pressure Russia into ending aggressions against Ukraine using diplomatic and economic means – even sending emergency aid to Kyiv – but the Kremlin fired back on Monday, effectively ending WWII-era peace talks, Reuters reported.

Japanese officials have made clear that they have no plans to send weapons to Ukraine, but Tokyo has thus far imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs, frozen Russian bank assets, revoked Russia’s most favored nation trade status, sent $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine and opened its doors to Ukrainian refugees.

Although this move shows Japan’s growing alignment with the West and the existing U.S.-led international order, Japanese Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs Matsumoto Koichiro said support for Ukraine is “quite natural,” since Japan is “one of the biggest beneficiaries of global peace and stability.”

“We attach great importance to universal values such as democracy, rule of law, and human rights, including freedom of expression. We know from our experience that when people stop fighting for these values, we will be giving chances and spaces to authoritarian regimes,” Matsumoto told VOA.

“As the people in Ukraine are fighting for these values that shape our society, supporting them in any way we can is the only way,” he added.

But as Japan continues to add economic and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that Moscow had decided to withdraw from peace treaty talks with Japan.

Tokyo and Moscow have yet to formally end their WWII hostilities and, on paper, are still technically at war. Talks have previously been slowed down by ongoing disputes over the Kuril Islands – an island chain between Russia and Japan that the Soviet Union seized at the end of the war and Japan now considers occupied territory.