Defense & Security

Chinese, Russian warships pass through Soya Strait

Courtesy of the Defense Ministry
A photograph taken by the Maritime Self-Defense Force shows a Russian Navy frigate firing a machine gun in the Sea of Japan on Saturday afternoon.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:28 JST, September 5, 2022

A total of six Chinese and Russian warships passed through the Soya Strait and entered the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday, the Defense Ministry announced on the same day.

The warships were participating in Vostok 2022, a large-scale military exercise organized by the Russian military. The warships did not intrude into Japanese territorial waters.

According to the ministry, three of the ships were Russian frigates, while the other three were a guided-missile destroyer, a frigate and a supply vessel of the Chinese Navy.

On Saturday afternoon, the Maritime Self-Defense Force confirmed that the six warships had fired machine guns in an area of the Sea of Japan that was about 190 kilometers west of Kamui Cape in Hokkaido.

The firing site was outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and the Russian side issued a notice that ships sailing around the site should exercise caution.