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Relations between Moscow and Tokyo, already difficult, have
deteriorated sharply since Russia sent tens of thousands of
troops into Ukraine in Feb. 2022. Japan has joined its Western
allies in imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Russia.
Last week, Japan said it would prepare to ship Patriot air
defense missiles to the United States after revising its arms
export guidelines, in Tokyo's first major overhaul of such
export curbs in nine years.
Although Japan's new export controls still prevent it from
shipping weapons to countries that are at war, it may indirectly
benefit Ukraine in its war with Russia as it gives the United
States extra capacity to provide military aid to Kyiv.
"The Japanese side loses control over the weapons with which
Washington can now do whatever it wants," Zakharova told a
weekly briefing. "It cannot be ruled out that under an already
tested scheme Patriot missiles will end up in Ukraine."
Such a scenario would be "interpreted as unambiguously hostile
actions against Russia and will lead to grave consequences for
Japan in the context of bilateral relations", she said.
Earlier this month, Japan and South Korea both scrambled jets to
monitor joint flights by Chinese and Russian bombers and
fighters near their territories.
Russia and Japan have yet to conclude a treaty formally ending
World War Two hostilities due to an old territorial dispute
involving a chain of Pacific islands known in Japan as the
Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kuriles.
Even before the Ukraine conflict, Tokyo had complained about
increased Russian military deployments on the islands, which the
Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War Two.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing
by Gareth Jones)
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