Russia has put its Pacific fleet on high alert as part of a surprise inspection aimed at strengthening its defense capabilities, Russian Defense Minister Serhiy Shoigu said on Friday, citing Reuters.

“The main purpose of this inspection is to increase the ability of the Armed Forces to repel the aggression of a potential enemy from the ocean and the sea,” Shoigu said in an intervention on state television.

He clarified that during the inspection, the enemy landed on the Russian island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands further south, part of the archipelago claimed by Japan in a dispute that dates back to the end of World War II.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, General Valery Gerasimov, in his turn announced that as part of the exercises, Navy forces will be deployed to training grounds and combat maneuvers will be conducted.

The military maneuvers came after the Russian Defense Ministry announced on March 21 that it had dispatched two strategic bombers for a 7-hour flight over the Sea of ​​Japan, ahead of an official visit by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kisida to Kyiv.

Moscow said that the Tu-95MS military aircraft carried out a “scheduled flight” accompanied by fighter jets, and that the flight was carried out in strict accordance with international law over neutral waters.

Growing tensions between Russia and Japan

Although the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands has been going on for almost 7 decades, tensions between the two countries have sharply increased since Japan joined the sanctions imposed by the West against Moscow after the start of the war against Ukraine.

The Soviet Union occupied these islands in the final days of the conflict after launching a large-scale military offensive against Japan, which some historians believe contributed at least as much to Emperor Hirohito’s decision to order the surrender as did the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Japan. the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, USA.

Moscow and Tokyo have never signed a peace treaty since the end of World War II, only an armistice, as the Russian invasion took place despite a military non-aggression pact signed between the two sides in 1941.

In 1951, Japan relinquished sovereignty over some of the islands as part of the San Francisco Treaty, but says this never applied to the islands of Itorofu, Kunasiri, Shikotan and Habomai, which are part of the archipelago.

On March 21, Russia suspended talks on a formal peace treaty with Japan after Tokyo imposed broad sanctions against it, including exports of semiconductors, a vital component of Russia’s defense industry.

Japan is stepping up its rhetoric on the Kuril Islands

In a diplomatic document released on April 22, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo described four small islands in the north of the archipelago as “illegally occupied” by Russia after Japan revoked the most-favored status granted to Russia two days ago.

The two countries have also expelled each other’s diplomats since the start of the war in Ukraine and escalating tensions over the Kuril Islands.

Late last year, the Japanese government announced a record defense budget amid rising tensions with Russia, as well as China.

In December, Russia accused Japan of abandoning decades of pacifist policies and embracing “unbridled militarization,” responding to a $320 billion defense plan announced a week earlier by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

In February of this year, Moscow also accused Japan of “Russophobia” because of the Tokyo government’s stance on the war in Ukraine.