Japan has lodged a “very serious protest” with Moscow after a Russian patrol plane entered its airspace three times, its defense minister said on Monday, calling it the first confirmed intrusion since 2019.
Japan’s Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters that the military responded by sending fighter jets and issuing radio and flare warnings.
“We have confirmed today that Russian IL-38 patrol aircraft violated our airspace three times in our territorial waters north of Hokkaido’s Rebun Island,” he said.
“The airspace violation is extremely regrettable and today we lodged our serious protest with the Russian government through diplomatic channels and strongly urge them to prevent a recurrence of such incident.”
Japan has supported the Western stance on Ukraine, providing financial and material support to Kiev and imposing sanctions on Russian individuals and organisations following Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
Mr Kihara said it was “the first publicly announced airspace intrusion by a Russian aircraft since June 2019”, when a Tu-95 bomber entered Japanese airspace over southern Okinawa and around the Izu Islands, south of Tokyo.
In 2023, an aircraft, which has not been confirmed as Russian, entered Japanese airspace, according to the Defense Ministry.
Top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi also said on Monday that “we will refrain from giving any specific information about the intention and purpose of this action, but Russian forces have been active around our country since the invasion of Ukraine”.
Japan also deployed fighter jets this month after Russian planes flew around the archipelago for the first time since 2019.
Tokyo said the Tu-142s did not enter Japanese airspace but instead flew over an area disputed by Japan and Russia.
Russian and Chinese warships recently carried out joint drills in the Sea of Japan, part of a major naval exercise that President Vladimir Putin said was the largest of its kind in the past three decades.
Japan scrambled fighter jets in August after the first confirmed incursion by Chinese military aircraft into its airspace. Tokyo described it as a “serious violation” of its sovereignty.
Then last week, a Chinese aircraft carrier passed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time. Japan described the incident as “completely unacceptable from the perspective of the security environment in Japan and the region.”
China said the bill is in accordance with international law.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
