Japan verspricht Unterstützung für die Ukraine in Höhe von 6 Milliarden US-Dollar

Hooray for Japan!

It is my firm belief that we are currently living through a Pseudo Second Cold War, with proxy engagements between NATO (mainly the US) and Russia, and China once again acting as a secondary entity in this fight. With Russian allies like Assad and Maduro being targeted, Cuba once again being cut off, and Iran experiencing what I would call a revolution, it’s obvious that Western powers which too wary of engaging Russia directly because of the risk to their own political and economic interests are cutting away at Russia’s political and economic supports.

On the other side, Russia is struggling militarily and economically and, for the most part, fails to be seen as a serious threat even to Ukraine as a country. But Putin knows he can’t simply “give up” the war. A regime like his depends on sustaining the idea of an economic or national resurgence. Thus they have multiple times stooped to targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine as a way to try and force negotiations by hitting energy and power systems to undermine morale and leverage bargaining power.

Of course, Russia then does not actually want those negotiations, because the end of the war would mean all of these men coming home and those are men who’d need benefits, care, and rewards, and who might question the regime’s decision-making. It’s a lose-lose situation.

I am glad to see EU members like France and Poland step up and carry some of the weight and agency in this situation when it comes to helping Ukraine, including actions like seizing assets and disrupting sanctioned oil shipments linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which Western navies have recently intercepted to cut off revenue funding Russia’s war effort.

Japan’s position as a stable NATO-aligned partner in Asia has also been a welcome development. Its growing investments in water purification, defense, and military development have eased some long-standing concerns I’ve had about the United States’ influence in Japan since World War II. For decades, Japan has served as a staging ground for U.S. power projection in Asia, but its recent steps toward greater self-reliance and strategic initiative suggest a more balanced and confident role within the alliance framework.