Defence Minister Minoru Kihara calls on the Russian government to prevent a recurrence.Japan has protested to the Kremlin after a Russian patrol plane entered its airspace three times, Defence Minister Minoru Kihara says.
“We confirmed today that a Russian Il-38 patrol aircraft has violated our airspace over our territorial waters north of Rebun Island, Hokkaido, on three occasions,” Kihara told reporters of Monday’s incidents.
Japanese F-15 and F-35 fighter jets warned the Russian military over the radio before firing flares during the third incursion, the defence minister added and said he has called on the Russian government through diplomatic channels to prevent a recurrence.
Kihara also noted that Monday’s incident was “the first publicly announced” airspace incursion by a Russian aircraft since June 2019 when a Tu-95 bomber entered Japanese airspace over the southern island of Okinawa and around the Izu Islands south of Tokyo.
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japan “will refrain from giving any definitive information on the intent and purpose of this action, but the Russian military has been active in the vicinity of our country since the invasion of Ukraine”.
Japan has supported the Western position on Ukraine, providing Kyiv with financial and materiel support and sanctioning Russian individuals and organisations since Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
The Russian government has not yet commented on the air incursions.
Japan has …
