Ukraine Turns to Japan for Reconstruction, Giving Up on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and First Lady Olena Zelenska visited Japan this week seeking opportunities for cooperation in both politics and business, particularly investments in the reconstruction of post-war Ukraine.

Sybiha engaged in several meetings with high-level officials including his Japanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Yoji Muto. Sybiha also participated in the 2025 World EXPO hosted by Osaka, an event meant to facilitate cooperation among corporations, governments, inventors, and others with the intention of aiding technological advances and development generally. The Expo included a side event showcasing Ukraine, which Sybiha attended, inviting international entities to invest in the country’s future.

Zelenka also attended the Ukraine event at the World EXPO, as well as meeting Japanese business leaders and discussing areas of investment that could benefit Japan.

The emphasis on attracting Japanese development is a marked departure from how the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approached its relationship with Asia. Prior to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Zelensky prioritized attracting Chinese investment. Ukraine is a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global debt trap scheme in which Beijing ensnares impoverished countries by signing needlessly expensive infrastructure deals and offering loans to pay them off. Zelensky repeatedly called for Chinese investment in developing Ukraine and invited Chinese dictator Xi Jinping to the country. In the early days of the war, Zelensky held on to the possibility of maintaining Beijing as an ally, encouraging Xi to deter ally Russia’s brutality and calling for “Chinese businesses” to rebuild what Russia had destroyed.

Kyiv has since appeared to abandon hope of enlisting China to offer good faith support amid the invasion. Zelensky revealed this year that his government had caught Chinese nationals fighting on behalf of Russia in the Ukraine war theater and imposed sanctions on Chinese businesses allegedly supplying Russia with critical components for its weapons.

At the EXPO Ukraine National Day event, Sybiha, the foreign minister, noted that Japan had signed a “strategic partnership” with Ukraine and could likely serve as a top partner in rebuilding.

“We are counting on Japan’s leadership in Ukraine’s reconstruction,” the state news website Ukrinform quoted Sybiha as saying. “Japanese technologies are already helping restore life in areas devastated by war. Ukraine is a country of opportunity — and a future member of the European Union.”

Sybiha also separately met with Muto, the economy minister, to discuss Japan’s economic investment in his country.

“Japan is one of Ukraine’s most important economic partners in the Asia-Pacific region. By providing over $15 billion in assistance to Ukraine, Japan stands among the largest contributors to our resilience and defense,” Sybiha noted in a statement on that meeting.

Sybiha noted that he and Muto addressed Japanese cooperation in “support for small and medium-sized enterprises, digital infrastructure, green energy, and industrial revival.”

Speaking to Japan’s Kyodo News on Monday, Sybiha included the production of drones among key areas of cooperation. Describing Ukraine as “the leaders in the world in producing drones” — a reality made possible with the aid of Turkey — Sybiha suggested that pacifist Japan could still benefit from Ukrainian drones for civilian uses, such as “agricultural” and “intelligence” purposes.

First Lady Zelenska published a social media statement on Tuesday about her activities in Japan, notably a meeting with Hiroshi Nojima, the president of the electronics giant Nojima Corporation.

“We are sincerely grateful to the company for 200 million yen of support — this is a significant contribution to our work,” she noted. “Back at the beginning of the war, Mr. Nojima personally helped Ukrainians who evacuated to Japan with financial assistance. Nojima Corporation continues to support Ukrainian children, in particular, by donating laptops for schoolchildren in Odesa.”

In addition to the expo in Osaka, Tokyo hosted an event for Ukraine titled the Ukraine-Japan Economic Reconstruction Forum on Tuesday. According to Ukrainian state media, the forum resulted in the signing of 29 economic agreements in “agriculture and food industry, infrastructure and construction, technologies and innovations.”

“During the forum, we had many meetings with Japanese businesses,” Ukrainian Economy, Environment and Agriculture Minister Oleksii Sobolev, who was also part of the Japan delegation, was quoted as saying. “The companies are interested in investing hundreds of millions of dollars in different projects in Ukraine.”

Many of these business deals could have potentially gone to Chinese companies if the Zelensky administration’s early enthusiasm for Beijing is any indication. Kyiv signed a massive infrastructure agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in July 2021 intended to help Ukraine with basic government services such as waste management. That same month, Zelensky declared that he was hoping Ukraine could “become a bridge to Europe” for China and suggested lifting visa requirements for Chinese nationals to visit.

Neither party has offered any specifics on the results of that agreement since the outbreak of the Russian full-scale invasion about half a year later.

Zelensky persisted in seeking Chinese aid for months after the invasion, despite China’s support for Russia. In August 2022, the president told the South China Morning Post that he hoped to see “Chinese businesses” rebuild what Russia had destroyed and repeatedly emphasized his hope of holding a phone call with Xi. He again invited Xi to Kyiv in 2023.

Xi and Zelensky held a phone call in April 2023 that did not result in any substantive action.

This year, Ukrainian officials accused China repeatedly of directly aiding the Russian invasion. In May, Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service head Oleh Ivashchenko revealed that the country had evidence that China was supplying “tooling machines, special chemical products, gunpowder, and components specifically to defense manufacturing industries” building weapons for Russia.

“As of early 2025, 80 percent of critical electronic components found in Russian drones originated in China,” he claimed. “At the same time, there are facts of product substitutions, deceptive product names, there are shell companies through which everything necessary for the production of microelectronics is supplied.”

Prior to this development, Zelensky published videos online of men he claimed were Chinese citizens that Ukraine had captured fighting for Russia.

Last week, Zelensky announced a new round of sanctions targeting Chinese companies believed to be aiding the Russian war effort.

“We urge the Ukrainian side to correct its mistake at once and undo the negative effect,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry responded in outrage. “China will firmly safeguard the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies.”

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