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Japan’s defense ministry said it tracked four large Russian ships carrying troops across the strait to the north of the country and heading west.
Officials speculated that the ships may have headed for Europe based on their trajectory. Two ships passed around 8:00 pm on Tuesday and two more around 7:00 am on Wednesday.
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The Department of Defense has released photographs showing the vessel, identified as a vessel commonly used for amphibious landing expeditionary forces. According to The Mainichi, military trucks were loaded onto the deck of one vessel.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions from reporters about measures against the new micron variant of the coronavirus at his official residence in Tokyo on Monday. (Sadayuki Goto/Kyodo News via AP)
A Defense Ministry spokesman said it was “quite possible” that four ships could go to Ukraine. The ships passed from the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan through the Tsuruga Strait.
The representative added that it was unusual for Russian ships to pass through the strait so close to Japanese territory.
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Japan has recently reaffirmed its claims to the disputed Kuril Islands, which are a point of contention between Japan and Russia.
Russia took over the islands formerly part of Hokkaido Prefecture at the end of World War II. In subsequent decades, Japan has made efforts to secure them again, recently stressing that it believes the islands remain “originally Japanese” and calling Russian ownership “an occupation against the international order.”
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Japan supported and imposed strong sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, most notably joining with the US and European allies to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT international financial system at the end of February.
Japan also froze assets belonging to President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials and sent $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
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“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a one-sided attempt to change the status quo, and this act shakes the foundations of the international order. This is a direct violation of international law and we strongly condemn this act,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier. “Japan supports the Ukrainian people who are fighting hard to defend their sovereignty and territory, their homeland and families.”
Stephen Soras of Fox News contributed to this report.