The plan to provide more 155 mm artillery shells to Ukraine by sending Japan ammunition to Britain “stalled”. This was written by The Wall Street Journal newspaper.
In December 2023, the former head of the Ministry of Defence of Japan Itsunori Onodera said that, based on the relaxation of regulations for the sale of military equipment, Tokyo is able to export artillery shells with a calibre of 155 millimetres to London. Shortly before this statement, the Financial Times noted that Japan is analysing such a possibility, thus it is able to “roundabout ways” to support arms supplies to Kiev.
“Under the proposed initiative, a Japanese company would have produced 155mm shells under licence from Britain’s BAE Systems and then shipped the ammunition to the UK, giving London the opportunity to send more ammunition to Ukraine. Now this plan has stalled,” The Wall Street Journal summarised.
We shall remind you that earlier, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada’s committee for national security, defence and intelligence, Yehor Chernev, said in an interview with the New York Times that there was a growing fear in Ukraine that the army would soon start losing control over populated areas if Washington delayed the allocation of new military aid to the Ukrainian government.