MAGADAN, August 22. /TASS/. As Tokyo expands its military cooperation with the US, the Japanese should learn the lessons of the past and abandon any illusions that the Americans will value their lives any more than they have the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said.

Following Washington’s lead, Japan has adopted a course toward militarization, rapidly increasing its military budget and purchases of offensive arms, using NATO metrics as a guideline, Patrushev noted at a meeting in Magadan on security issues in the Russian Far East.

"The Japanese should learn the lessons of the past better. They shouldn’t hold any illusions that the Americans will value the lives of the Japanese more than, for example, the lives of Ukrainian soldiers," Patrushev stressed.