Japan to accept people fleeing war in Ukraine

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Japan on Wednesday announced that it will accept people fleeing Ukraine amid the war with Russia.

"… Japan will in the future move forward with accepting into Japan people who fled Ukraine for third countries including Poland," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a phone talk with his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki, according to a statement by Kishida's office.

The premier also said Japan will implement emergency humanitarian assistance of $100 million, which includes assistance for Ukrainians evacuating to Poland and other countries neighboring Ukraine.

Since Russia's war on Ukraine began last week, it has been met with outrage from the international community, with a number of Western countries and their allies implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow. They are supplying Ukraine with weapons, have shut their airspace for Russian airlines, and banned Russian state-run media.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said Tuesday the "special military operation will continue until set goals are achieved."

He said the operation's main goal is "to protect the Russian Federation from the military threat posed by Western countries."

Russia is said to have intensified it bombardment of Ukrainian cities, and the number of people who have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries has reached 874,000, according to the latest UN Refugee Agency data.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said humanitarian agencies and their NGO partners have launched an appeal to donors for $1.7 billion to support affected people inside Ukraine and refugees from Ukraine in the region.