Japan’s Defense Ministry has announced that it will send masks and clothing designed to protect against chemical weapons as well as drones to Ukraine in response to a request from Kyiv, in Tokyo’s latest shipment of defense supplies to the war-torn country.
The decision to provide the defense equipment to Ukraine comes after reports of a possible Russian chemical weapons attack on the besieged city of Mariupol last week. The U.S. and U.K. have said they are monitoring the unconfirmed reports, which, if true, would represent a major escalation of the conflict.
The ministry said in a statement that it had decided to provide NBC suits and NBC masks — which are designed to protect against direct contact with and contamination by radioactive, biological or chemical substances — as well as commercially available drones to the Ukrainian government after it requested the gear.