Russia has conducted live-fire missile exercises near the disputed Kuril Islands, prompting a fresh protest from Japan and further straining already tense relations between Moscow and Tokyo.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet said on Thursday that it had launched missiles from a nuclear-powered submarine, a guided-missile cruiser and a Bastion coastal defence system during exercises around the southern Kuril Islands. The missiles struck simulated targets more than 300 kilometres away.
The drills involved the cruiser Varyag, the nuclear-powered submarine Omsk and Bastion systems deployed on Iturup, one of the four islands at the centre of the territorial dispute.
Russia administers the islands as part of its Sakhalin region, while Japan calls them the Northern Territories and claims sovereignty over them.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi criticised the exercises, saying Russia’s military build-up on the four Northern Territories was “unacceptable” and contrary to Tokyo’s position on the disputed territory.
Japanese officials confirmed on Friday that Tokyo had lodged a formal protest after receiving notification of the planned missile tests.
The Russian Pacific Fleet did not specify when the missile launches took place.
The exercises form part of wider Russian military manoeuvres in the Far East that began on August 4 and are scheduled to continue until August 29.
Moscow said the broader exercises involve around 60 ships and support vessels, about 30 aircraft and more than 13,000 military personnel.
The missile launches come only days after Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first visit to the disputed islands.
Putin travelled to Iturup on August 13 as part of a wider trip to Russia’s Far East, prompting Japan to summon the Russian ambassador and reiterate its claim to the territory.
Moscow responded by summoning Japan’s ambassador in turn.
The four southern Kuril Islands have been administered by Russia since the Soviet Union seized them from Japan at the end of the Second World War.
Japan maintains that the islands are its sovereign territory. The dispute has prevented Russia and Japan from concluding a formal post-war peace treaty.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated further since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Japan joining Western sanctions against Moscow.
Russia has subsequently strengthened its military presence in the Kurils, while Tokyo has increasingly identified Russian military activity in the region as a security concern.
Moscow has defended its military activity as necessary for national security. During his visit to Iturup, Putin said Russia faced growing threats in the region, citing NATO activity and the emergence of new military and political blocs.
