Sharjah24 - AFP: Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said on a surprise visit to Kyiv on Sunday that Tokyo was "determined" to support Ukraine, as the second anniversary of Moscow's invasion nears.

Japan has joined Western sanctions against Russia and provided weapons to Kyiv.

During her first foreign trip of 2024, Kamikawa held a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in a Kyiv bomb shelter as an air siren rang out.

"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," she said, sitting at a desk in a cellar with Kuleba. "I can feel how tense the situation in Ukraine is now."

Her visit came during an escalation of attacks on both sides in the conflict.