Putin Issues Statement on WWII Soviet Attack on Japan

   Tokyo, Aug. 19 (Jiji Press)--Russian President Vladimir Putin has released a statement on the 80th anniversary of the Soviet attack on a then Japanese island after Japan's surrender in World War II.
   The statement was read at a ceremony on Monday to unveil a monument on the Shumshu island, located at the northeastern end of the Kuril Islands, according to Russia's state-run Tass news agency.
   In the statement, Putin said that the Soviet Union fulfilled its duty as one of the Allied powers by attacking Japan, noting that it merely followed an agreement made at the Yalta Conference with the United States and Britain. At that time, Japan and the Soviet Union had a bilateral neutrality treaty.
   Putin added that what he described as the liberation of the Kuril Islands was the last and critical episode of World War II.
   The Soviet Union took control of the island chain, including the four Japanese-claimed islands at the southwestern end, by Sept. 5, 1945.

(2025/08/19-21:59)

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