Japanese billionaire Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani, calls Russia's attack a challenge to democracy

Japanese billionaire Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani said Sunday that ''Russia's invasion a challenge to democracy,'' adding that he will donate $8.7 million to the government of Ukraine.

"My thoughts are with you and Ukraine people," Mikitani said in a letter addressed to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I believe that the trampling of a peaceful and democratic Ukraine by unjustified force is a challenge to democracy.

"I sincerely hope that Russia and Ukraine can resolve this issue peacefully and that Ukraine people can have peace again as soon as possible," he wrote.

Mikitani is the founder of e-commerce giant Rakuten. He visited Kyiv in 2019 and met with Zelensky.

Street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country’s south Sunday, advances that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia’s invasion following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.

Until Sunday, Russia’s troops had remained on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south of the border with Russia, while other forces rolled past to press the offensive deeper into Ukraine and Ukrainian fighters put up determined resistance.

“We are fighting, fighting for our country, fighting for our freedom because we have the right to do that,” Zelenskyy said.

“The past night was tough — more shelling, more bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure. There is not a single facility in the country that the occupiers wouldn’t consider as admissible targets.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a regime of his own, redrawing the map of Europe and reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.

The pressure on strategic ports in the south of Ukraine appeared aimed at seizing control of Ukraine’s coastline stretching from the border with Romania in the west to the border with Russia in the east.

Cutting Ukraine’s access to its sea ports that would deal a major blow to the country’s economy. It also could allow Moscow to build a land corridor to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and until now was connected to Russia by a 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge, the longest bridge in Europe which opened in 2018.

Russia’s military also put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the south of Ukraine, blocking the cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea.