- Russia conducted live-fire missile drills in the southern Kuril Islands, destroying simulated targets at a range of 300 kilometers.
- The exercises came a week after President Putin’s first-ever visit to Iturup, which Japan formally protested as "absolutely unacceptable."
- Russia summoned Japan’s ambassador and declared its sovereignty over the islands "absolutely unshakable," rejecting Tokyo’s claims as unlawful.
- Japan’s foreign minister said Tokyo "cannot tolerate" Russia’s military buildup and lodged a protest over the large-scale maneuvers.
- The decades-long Kuril Islands dispute remains the key obstacle to a peace treaty, now further strained by Japan’s sanctions over Ukraine.
Russia's Pacific Fleet destroyed simulated enemy targets at a range of around 300 kilometers in the southern Kuril Islands, escalating tensions with Japan roughly a week after President Vladimir Putin's unprecedented visit to the contested archipelago.
The live-fire exercise Thursday involved the Varyag guided-missile cruiser, the Omsk nuclear-powered submarine, and a Bastion coastal missile battery, Russia's Pacific Fleet said in a statement. Naval aviation supplied targeting data, and the fleet said all targets were destroyed.
The drills came one week after Japan lodged a formal protest over Putin's first-ever visit to Iturup, the largest of the four southernmost Kuril Islands that Tokyo claims as its "Northern Territories." Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the trip "absolutely unacceptable" and said it "hurts the feelings of the Japanese people."
Ambassador summoned as rhetoric hardens
On Tuesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned Japanese Ambassador Akira Muto for an approximately 20-minute meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin. Galuzin told Muto that "Russia's sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are absolutely unshakable," adding that the territories passed to the Soviet Union after World War II under agreements among the Allied Powers and the U.N. Charter. Any attempt by Japan to question that, he said, is "absolutely unacceptable and unlawful." Russia's Foreign Ministry separately issued a statement using similar language, calling Japan's position "categorically unacceptable and illegitimate."
The Japanese Embassy confirmed Muto "appropriately explained the Japanese position on the Northern Territories and President Putin's recent visit" but declined to detail his response to Galuzin's remarks.
Tokyo says it won't tolerate a Russian military buildup
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi responded to the missile tests by telling reporters that Tokyo "cannot tolerate moves [by Russia] to strengthen military power on the Four Northern Islands because they go against our country's stance."
Japan received advance notice of the drills and lodged a formal protest against the large-scale maneuvers on August 5. Russian state media reported the exercises involve approximately 60 surface ships, submarines and support vessels, along with about 30 aircraft and unmanned systems, and more than 13,000 personnel. The drills are scheduled to run through August 29.
Putin observed portions of the exercises on August 12 from the Varyag as part of his trip to the disputed islands and Sakhalin. Speaking aboard the flagship, he warned that the region is "unfortunately becoming increasingly prone to conflict, with NATO seeking to gain a foothold here and the emergence of new military and political blocs."
A World War II dispute still blocking a peace treaty
The Kurils run from Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula down to Japan's Hokkaido and fell under Soviet control after Japan's 1945 defeat. Japan continues to claim Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets as its own territory. Eight decades later, the dispute is still the single biggest obstacle to a formal peace treaty between the two countries.
Galuzin told Muto that given Tokyo's adherence to Western sanctions and its continued support for Kiev, "Moscow reserves the right to take appropriate countermeasures." It's a pointed reminder of how far the Ukraine conflict's fallout has traveled — straining a totally unrelated territorial dispute on the other side of the globe, and giving Moscow one more grievance to hold against Washington's allies. Putin, for his part, noted that Japan once maintained warmer ties with Moscow under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before shifting toward treating Russia as a primary threat, and said Russia remains "ready to cooperate with all its neighbors, including Japan."
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