Igor Klymenko: Japan's help will help us to exchange territories as soon as possible
This was stated by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine during the transfer of equipment from the Japan Agency for International Cooperation with the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Yoshimasa Hayashi.
We are talking about 24 trucks with an ISUZU crane installation, provided to Ukraine as part of the project of international technical assistance for the development of capacities in humanitarian mining and the disposal of explosive objects.
At the beginning of the event, the Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klymenko thanked Japanese colleagues for the technical and humanitarian assistance provided to our country against the background of a full-scale Russian invasion and noted that the official Kiev highly appreciates the political relations between the countries.
“We are all very happy to meet you in Ukraine. Japan, from the first days of the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, helps us in the technical and humanitarian sphere. We often meet with the Ambassador of Japan, because the sphere of humanitarian demining and the experience that Japan has is very important for our country, because 30% of Ukraine is mined,” Ihor Klymenko stressed.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine noted that despite the constant shelling, the SNS sappers daily destroy hundreds of explosive objects, because it is important for the state to return people to the de-occupied territories, and this is possible only after demining:
“Our pyrotechnics risk their lives every day and to date, representatives of the State Emergency Service have defused about 428 thousand units of explosive objects. In addition, they surveyed more than 93 thousand hectares of territory. And this work will continue for many years to come, but Japan's help will help speed up this process.”
In turn, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that official Tokyo will continue to actively cooperate with Ukraine in the field of demining and share its experience with colleagues. In addition, Yoshimasa Hayashi stressed that Ukraine and Japan share common values — freedom, democracy, respect for international law and human rights, so his country will continue to support Ukraine.
“I would like to use this visit to improve bilateral cooperation between our countries. I promise that Japan will stand by Ukraine until peace is fully restored. That is why we are handing over these 24 trucks that will come in handy during the demining of your territories. We hope that this assistance will play an important role in the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
At the end of the meeting, the Japanese and Ukrainian sides conducted an inspection of the transferred vehicles. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klymenko noted that the trucks provided will soon go to the territories close to the combat zone and will be actively involved in the demining process.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
