Aggression against Ukraine: Malignant Precedent Must Not Be Set through Deal between Great Powers

Editorial

15:59 JST, February 24, 2026

If the war is not stopped, many more lives will be lost. Yet rushing to a ceasefire in a way that will force the victimized country to make unreasonable concessions would set a bad precedent in which an aggressor achieves military gains.

How Russia’s aggression ends will significantly affect not only the future of Ukraine but the future international order as well.

Feb. 24 marks four years since the aggression began. The number of combat deaths is estimated at about 300,000 on the Russian side and more than 100,000 on the Ukrainian side.

Currently, Russian forces illegally occupy about 20% of Ukraine’s territory. This figure has not changed much over the past year.

Russia has received military personnel and weapons from North Korea. It has also deployed fighters from Africa and elsewhere to the battlefield, but the front lines have been at a stalemate.

This winter, Russia has launched attacks using drones and missiles, intensively targeting power and heating supply facilities in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and other locations far from the front lines. These attacks were clearly aimed to undermine people’s morale by exposing them to extreme cold temperatures, sometimes below minus 20 C. This is utterly despicable.

Amid this unrelenting war of attrition, U.S. President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House in January last year, stepped in as a mediator, leading both warring sides to resume direct talks toward a ceasefire and peace. This can be called a major change.

However, Trump is rushing to achieve a ceasefire, expressing his desire to stop people from being killed. He has even refrained from condemning Russia, while pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country has been under Moscow’s aggression, to cede the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

It is only natural that Zelenskyy has expressed frustration, saying “too often those concessions are discussed in the context only of Ukraine — not Russia.”

If such high-handed acts by major powers go unchallenged, and other nations are subordinated through deals between those powers, the postwar international order based on the rule of law will collapse entirely.

First, the fighting must be stopped unconditionally to prevent further harm. Negotiations then should be conducted on territorial issues and measures to prevent the conflict from reigniting.

Hit by sanctions from Western countries and Japan, Russia has seen the amount of war funds it can procure decline. The Western countries and Japan must continue to support Ukraine while intensifying pressure on Russia, to allow Moscow and Kyiv to launch negotiations on equal footing.

Ukraine’s defense capabilities depend on weapons that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has purchased from the United States and then provided to Ukraine. Japan is also expected to join this support framework.

Japan’s financial contributions will be limited to funds to purchase nonlethal equipment, such as radar systems. The nation should continue providing all the support that Japan’s laws allow.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 23, 2026)