Russia threatens Japan with countermeasures after Terra Drone delivers interceptor drones to Ukraine

Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday 21 October that it regards a Japanese company's delivery of interceptor drones to Ukraine's armed forces as an openly hostile act, and warned that Moscow would take tough countermeasures against Japan. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made the remarks at her regular news briefing in response to an announcement by the Tokyo-based drone developer Terra Drone, according to the Asahi Shimbun and Jiji Press.

Terra Drone said on 14 October that a Ukrainian company within its group had delivered small interceptor drones to the Ukrainian government. The Nikkei reported that the aircraft had been adopted by the defence procurement agency of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, which handles weapons purchasing, and that they are built by a Ukrainian manufacturer in which Terra Drone took a stake in September. The Asahi Shimbun reported that the company put local production capacity at more than 12,000 drones a year.

According to the Nikkei, the main selling points of the Ukrainian-built interceptor are its low cost and the short time needed to prepare each airframe for flight. The paper said this is the interceptor now being deployed in earnest with Ukraine's armed forces, meaning the drones are going to military users rather than civilian buyers.

At the briefing, Zakharova rejected the Japanese position that the company's work with the Ukrainian military is a purely private commercial initiative, calling that argument wholly unconvincing, Kyodo News reported. She claimed that the Japanese authorities in effect encourage their companies to trade with Ukraine in the military field, and said Russia had repeatedly warned Tokyo that such steps would harm relations between the two countries. These are assertions by the Russian government.

Zakharova also asserted that drone manufacturing facilities in Ukraine are legitimate targets for Russian forces, and said Moscow hoped Japan would heed the warning, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Jiji Press carried the same claim about the factories. Neither report said what specific measures Russia intends to take against Japan.

Terra Drone announced in March that it would enter the defence equipment market, according to Jiji Press. Japan's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, the defence ministry's procurement arm, said in August that it had signed a contract with the company to procure interceptor drones on a mass-production basis. The same company therefore supplies interceptor drones both to Japan's own defence ministry and, through its Ukrainian arm, to Ukraine's forces.

The row adds to strains between Tokyo and Moscow, and the Asahi Shimbun said Russia has recently hardened its stance toward Japan. The Asahi Shimbun noted that Russian authorities said on 13 October they had detained a reporter for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper on spying allegations, claiming he had gathered military information on the instructions of Japanese intelligence. Japan's foreign ministry has demanded the reporter's immediate release, Kyodo News reported.