TOKYO, February 11. /TASS/. The Japanese Foreign Ministry announced on Friday it has decided to raise the threat level of being on the territory of Ukraine to the maximum fourth and calls on its citizens to immediately leave the country’s territory.
The fourth level of danger of being on the territory of a country, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s classification, calls to "immediately leave the territory" of the state and to refrain from any trips to this country. The Japanese Foreign Ministry explained its decision by "the mounting tensions on the Ukrainian-Russian border". The Foreign Ministry stressed that further development of the situation remains "unpredictable, despite the ongoing diplomatic efforts" aimed at resolving the crisis.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry also noted that "in the future, the termination of commercial air traffic [between Japan and Ukraine] is not ruled out", and everything "depends on the developments." "Many countries have already recommended their citizens to leave Ukraine’s territory as well, this can lead to the fact that it will be extremely difficult to leave the country by commercial airlines due to the lack of tickets," the Japanese Foreign Ministry added, urging Japanese citizens to leave the territory of Ukraine as soon as possible.
According to the Japanese government, the office of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also set up a crisis headquarters to collect and analyze information on the situation around Ukraine.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said in an interview with NBC television that Americans should leave Ukraine "right now". Earlier that day, the US State Department advised fellow citizens to leave Ukraine immediately "due to increased threats of Russian military action as well as because of COVID-19". For those who decide to stay on Ukrainian territory, the US Department of State advised to "exercise caution due to crime, civil unrest, and potential combat operations" in case of an escalation of the situation.
The West and Kiev have recently been echoing allegations about Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. However, Peskov did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such claims and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.