Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers on Friday approved measures necessary to receive a $3 billion loan from Japan, with funds backed by frozen Russian assets.
“We will direct these funds towards financing our priority budget expenditures,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a post on Telegram.
Last month, Ukraine’s Finance Minister, Serhii Marchenko, and Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine, Masashi Nakagome reached an agreement for Japan to provide Ukraine with 471.9 billion Japanese yen ($3.3 billion) under the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Initiative.
Ukraine’s Finance Minister noted that Japan has provided Ukraine with $8.5 billion in financial support since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The move has infuriated Moscow, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warning Tokyo that the move would negatively impact relations between the two countries.
“We have long warned the Japanese side that participation in illegitimate experiments with the sovereign assets of the Russian Federation in any form...will be regarded by us as complicity in theft,” said Zakharova - Reuters.
Japan is one of Ukraine’s key supporters, providing funds for budget support and reconstruction, and leading the charge on imposing sanctions on Russia.
In March, Russia banned Japan’s Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi and other Japanese diplomats from Russia according to the Diplomat.
Japan and Russia have a longstanding territorial dispute based on the Northern Territories (which Russia calls the Kuril Islands), which have prevented the signing of a formal peace treaty between Russia and Japan in the 80 years since the end of WWII.