PRESS CONFERENCE
Sergiy Korsunsky, Ambassador of Ukraine to Japan
Sergiy Korsunsky Ambassador of Ukraine to Japan, wearing a protective mask speaks during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on January 26, 2022, in Tokyo, Japan. Ambassador Korsunsky spoke on the current situation between Ukraine and Russia, in which diplomatic tensions alarmed Washington and its allies seeking diplomatic resolution. Russia displayed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, despite denying planning an invasion.
On January 26, Ukraine and Japan will be celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations. But the26 happy occasion marking friendly, mutually beneficial ties between the two countries is overshadowed by the crisis in eastern Europe. Reports of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine if Kyiv joins NATO have been in the headlines daily.
More than 100,000 Russian troops have massed near Ukraine’s borders. And Russia has reportedly demanded assurances that NATO will not gather Ukraine into its protective alliance. The situation has been deteriorating since 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Ukraine-Japan relations at a time of crisis
Kyiv has been battling a pro-Moscow insurgency in two border regions that have so far left more than 13,000 dead. Adding to tensions is a controversy over the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would carry natural gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. Germany is now facing pressure to use the completed pipeline as a bargaining chip to restrain Russia. Ambassador Korsunsky will report on the current crisis on the border with Russia and briefly describe the achievements resulting from 30 years of diplomatic relations with Japan.
Source FCCJ.
Gallery pictures of Ambassador of Ukraine, Sergiy Korsunsky
(Photos by Rodrigo Reyes Marin). To license images please visit: ZUMAPRESS