Zelenskiy calls on Japan to impose trade embargo on Russian goods

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on Japan to increase pressure on Russia by imposing a trade embargo on Russian goods, in a virtual address to MPs in Tokyo. Zelenskiy, who has delivered carefully tailored speeches to lawmakers in the US, UK and other countries, thanked Japan for “leading the way” among Asian countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions.

“Responsible states unite to protect peace. I am grateful to your state for its principled position at such a historic moment, for real assistance to Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said on Wednesday in the first address of its kind to Japanese lawmakers. “You were the first in Asia who really began to put pressure on Russia to restore peace, who supported sanctions against Russia, and I urge you to keep doing this.”

In a later address to French MPs he called on French companies including Renault and the supermarket group Auchan to leave Russia. He compared the destruction of Mariupol with “the ruins of Verdun as in the photos of the first world war that everyone has seen”.

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