Russia slams Japan over plan to use frozen assets for assisting Ukraine

The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a formal protest to Japan following reports that Tokyo intends to use the revenues from frozen Russian state assets to support Ukraine.

The protest was delivered to Japanese Ambassador to Moscow, Akira Muto, during a meeting with Lyudmila Vorobyova, Director of the Third Asian Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Caliber.Az reports via Russian media.

The Russian Ministry conveyed its deep concerns over Japan’s plan to allocate funds from the assets, which had been frozen under international sanctions, to support Ukraine as part of the financial aid package from the Group of Seven (G7) nations.

"The Japanese side was presented with a resolute protest regarding their intention to utilize income derived from unlawfully ‘frozen’ Russian state assets for loans under the G7’s aid initiative to Ukraine," the foreign ministry said.

The ministry went on to express that Japan’s actions would effectively make Tokyo complicit in what Russia describes as the crimes of the Kyiv regime and warned of harsh retaliatory measures, including potentially asymmetric responses in areas of significant importance to Japan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also placed full responsibility for the further deterioration of bilateral relations squarely on the Japanese government.  

Earlier in April, Ukraine's Ministry of Finance announced that Japan would provide Kyiv with up to 471.9 billion Japanese yen (approximately $3 billion) from the revenues generated as a result of the frozen Russian assets. This assistance will be part of the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) emergency lending programme.

The Ministry of Finance further clarified that the funding will be provided over a 30-year period, and noted that Japan has already allocated more than $8.5 billion to Ukraine in the past three years. Back in October 2024, the G7 confirmed that the funds derived from the revenues of frozen Russian assets would be used to support Ukraine.

By Naila Huseynova