Japan to allocate additional financial assistance to Ukraine

Japan will offer Ukraine fresh financial support worth $5.5 billion, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, Report informs referring to AFP.

Japan, this year's Group of Seven president, has joined Western powers in imposing sanctions on Moscow since the war began on February 24, 2022.

It has already provided Ukraine with financial support worth $600 million along with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of emergency humanitarian assistance, according to the prime minister's office.

But "there is still a need to assist people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the war, and to restore destroyed infrastructure", Kishida said in a speech at a think tank symposium in Tokyo.

"We have decided to provide additional financial support of $5.5 billion."

The Japanese premier also announced he will host a video conference of the G7 leaders with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 24, the invasion's one-year anniversary.

"This year, Japan, as G7 president and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, will support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and lead the world's efforts to uphold a free and open international order based on the rule of law," Kishida said.

The G7 leaders will meet in person in Hiroshima in May.