KYIV, June 02 (BBC/Reuters): The United States (US) is seeking to secure supplies of TNT in Japan for 155mm artillery shells, as Washington rushes weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for a counteroffensive against Russian forces, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
For war-renouncing Japan, any procurement would test its willingness to court controversy to help Kyiv because export rules ban Japanese companies from selling lethal items overseas, such as the howitzer shells that Ukraine fires daily at Russian units occupying its southeastern regions.
Nonetheless, the allies appear to have found a workaround to enable the TNT sale amid global shortages of munitions.
"There is a way for the United States to buy explosives from Japan," one of the people with knowledge of discussions on the matter in Japan told Reuters on the condition of anonymity, citing the issue's sensitivity.
Export restrictions for dual-use products or equipment sold commercially are less stringent than for items with a purely military purpose, which is why the US can buy Panasonic Toughbook laptops for its military.
Tokyo, which hosted US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin this week, has told the US government it will allow the sale of industrial TNT because the explosive is not a military-use-only product, the other source said.
The US wants to plug a Japanese company into a TNT supply chain to deliver explosives to US army-owned munitions plants that would pack them into 155mm shell cases, the person added.
Japan's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Economy declined to say whether any Japanese company had approached it about exporting TNT. It added in an email that items not subject to military restrictions would be assessed under regular export rules that consider the buyer's intent, including whether their use would impede international security.
The Japanese defence ministry's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency declined to comment.
Two women have been killed in shelling in the Russian border region of Belgorod, its governor says.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said the victims were hit by shrapnel as they were travelling in a car near the village of Maslova Pristan.
Officials in the neighbouring Bryansk and Kursk regions said buildings had been damaged in shelling and an overnight drone attack.
Ukrainian officials have so far not commented.
However Kyiv has denied involvement in previous attacks across the border, which it says are carried out by Russian anti-government groups.
In Belgorod, Mr Gladkov said two more people travelling in another car had been wounded in the shelling.
One of the most prominent anti-Kremlin paramilitary groups said it had been engaging in military operations in the nearby village of Novaya Tavolzhanka.
The Freedom of Russian Legion (FRL) said two civilians had been killed after the Russian artillery mistook their vehicle for a car containing FRL members.
Neither claim has been independently verified.
Long-range drones also hit two towns in the Smolensk region, the local governor there said, while the Kaluga region's head said an explosion had been reported in a forest.
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