Japanese officials say Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is heading to Ukraine after visiting India. It will mark the first visit to Ukraine by a Japanese leader since the start of the Russian invasion.

Kishida met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday(March 20), and was due to head home to Japan on Tuesday(March 21). But the Japanese government and ruling party officials said that he has instead left for Ukraine.

An NHK correspondent saw Kishida board a train in Przemysl in Poland, near the border with Ukraine, at around 1:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Kishida is expected to arrive in Ukraine later in the day, and meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Since the end of World War Two, a Japanese prime minister has never visited a country or territory where combat was taking place.

Kishida is expected to tell Zelenskyy that Japan -- as this year's host of the Group of Seven meeting -- will seek international unity by imposing tough sanctions against Russia.

The prime minister is also likely to say that Japan will continue providing maximum support to Ukraine, focusing on reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.

Leaders of other G7 countries have visited Ukraine. US President Joe Biden did so last month.

Zelenskyy asked Kishida to visit when they talked by phone in January. The Japanese government had been considering a visit, possibly before the G7 Summit in Hiroshima in May.(NHK)