US seeks explosives from Japan for Ukraine artillery shells.

The United States is seeking to purchase TNT in Japan for 155mm artillery shells to be sent to Ukraine for a planned counteroffensive against Russian forces. Japan's export rules ban companies from selling lethal items overseas, but the US and Japan have found a workaround to enable the TNT sale amid global shortages of munitions. Japan has agreed to allow the sale of industrial TNT because the explosive is not a military-use-only product. Japan has already imposed sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and offered assistance in the form of non-lethal aid, such as body armour and food rations.