Japan to offer $5.5B in additional financial support to Ukraine

ANKARA (AA) - Japan will offer $5.5 billion in financial support to Ukraine to help rebuild the country’s destroyed infrastructure, local media reported.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday said his country will provide this support in addition to $600 million already provided along with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of emergency humanitarian assistance.

“We have decided to provide additional financial support of $5.5 billion,” The Japan Times quoted Kishida as saying while speaking at a think tank symposium in Tokyo.

Kishida’s announcement came days ahead of the Group of Seven virtual meeting which will be chaired by Kishida on Friday as president of this year.

“But there is still a need to assist people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the war, and to restore destroyed infrastructure,” Kishida said.

The meeting will be held on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Kishida said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also join the video conference of the G7 leaders.

The G7 leaders are scheduled to meet in person in Hiroshima in May this year.

“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,” said Kishida.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden also arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit and promised increased arms deliveries for Ukraine, according to the report.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid