Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi was set to return to Japan with 20 Ukrainian evacuees aboard a government plane Tuesday after wrapping up a visit to Poland as a special envoy of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
"We have decided that 20 evacuees, who are wishing to travel to Japan but unable to secure means of transportation on their own, will get on a backup government plane when I return to Japan," Hayashi told reporters Monday before leaving the capital Warsaw.
Hayashi had been on a visit to the Eastern European nation to support Ukrainians fleeing to Poland due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.