It became known about the pressure that the United States is exerting on Japan in terms of pushing for the freezing of Russian foreign exchange assets. To date, the currency assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which the United States calls on Japan to freeze, amount to about 33 billion in dollar terms. However, Japan is in no hurry to do so. Moreover, there was an official comment from the main financial department of Japan, which is unlikely to please the White House.

The head of the Japanese Ministry of Finance, Shuniti Suzuki, during a speech in the country's parliament, said that Japan does not have a law that would allow freezing foreign assets.

"Our legislation, including the law on the Bank of Japan, does not provide for any freezing of foreign currency assets of foreign central banks. We cannot requisition such assets if they are held by our Central Bank."

Recall that Japan previously supported the main part of anti-Russian sanctions, after which Moscow announced its refusal to further discuss any issues related to the signing of a peace treaty. This statement by the Russian authorities became a real cold shower for official Tokyo, because in this case the "window of opportunity" (as they said in Japan itself) is closed in terms of discussing the issue of the South Kuriles.

In addition, Japan faces a choice - whether to buy gas from Russia for rubles or refuse Russian fuel imports. If there is a refusal, it will deal a blow to the Japanese economy, since in recent years Japanese companies (especially in the north of the country) have been actively increasing the volume of use of Russian LNG.

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Russia has launched a probe after graphic video emerged online, purporting to show the torture of prisoners of war at the hands of Ukrainian servicemen.

"The video circulating online shows captured soldiers being shot in the legs without medical assistance," the country's Investigative Committee said in a statement on Sunday.

The head of the body, Alexander Bastrykin, has ordered "investigators to establish all the circumstances of the incident, collect and record evidence and identify all the persons involved in it to subsequently bring them to justice." While it was not immediately clear where or when the disturbing videos were shot, some reports indicate the incident unfolded at a military compound located in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkov, which is used by "nationalist" units, the committee added.

Multiple disturbing clips apparently filmed at the same unknown facility, emerged online over the weekend. The videos are so extremely graphic that RT is unable to share them.

The footage shows multiple people, apparently Russian prisoners of war, lying on the ground. All of the servicemen appear to be heavily beaten and have leg wounds.

The injured soldiers are interrogated by armed men, many of whom are wearing blue armbands commonly used by Ukrainian units. Some of the wounded personnel apparently died during the interrogation. Footage also shows three other prisoners ordered out of a van and shotin their legs at a point-blank range.

The extreme cruelty displayed in the videos has garnered condemnation, even from pro-Ukrainian figures. The founder of the US-government funded Bellingcat "investigative journalism" outlet Eliot Higgins, for instance, has described it as "very serious incident" and called for a "further investigation" of the disturbing imagery.

Moscow attacked neighboring Ukraine last month, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia's eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military alliance. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

Ukraine has vowed to investigate after graphic videos emerged purporting to show the horrific abuse of Russian prisoners of war, including some who were shot in the legs.

"The government is taking this very seriously, and there will be an immediate investigation," senior presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Sunday, the Washington Examiner reported.

"We are a European army, and we do not mock our prisoners. If this turns out to be real, this is absolutely unacceptable behavior," President Volodymyr Zelensky's adviser added.

In another video, the faces of injured and bloodied Russians are seen after hoods are removed from their heads.

The authenticity of the harrowing footage has not been independently verified, and exactly where the videos were shot was unclear.

"I would like to remind all our military, civilian and defense forces once again that the abuse of prisoners is a war crime that has no amnesty under military law and has no statute of limitations," Arestovych said.

Ukraine officials have announced they will launch a probe into videos that show Russian POWs being abused and executed. Senior presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said the government is taking the videos very seriously.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military commander Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi accused Russia of "staging" the videos and warned the public to only trust "official sources."

"In order to discredit the Ukrainian defense forces, the enemy is filming and distributing staging videos with inhumane attitude of 'Ukrainian military' to 'Russian prisoners,'" Zaluzhnyi said in a statement.

"I urge you to take into account the realities of the information and psychological war and trust only official sources," he added, claiming that "the enemy produces and shares with the inhuman treatment of alleged 'Russian prisoners' by 'Ukrainian soldiers' in order to discredit Ukrainian Defense Forces."

Considering all the blatant propaganda - complete with CGI and video game footage passed off as war reporting - Ukraine's official sources in particular cannot be trusted.

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Speaking at the Doha Forum on Sunday, Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, cautioned against isolating Moscow, acknowledging:

"Russia must be heard one way or another. If everybody burns bridges with Russia, then who's going to talk to them, at the end of the day?"

Erdogan reportedly urged Putin in a telephone call on Sunday to bring about a ceasefire and improve humanitarian conditions in Ukraine.

Turkey's position is similar to that of South Africa, where President Cyril Ramaphosa has resisted international pressure to take a tougher anti-Moscow stance and has called for negotiations. Ramaphosa has also offered to mediate Russia-Ukraine peace talks, and said last week that NATO was at least partly to blame for causing the conflict.

"The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region."