A blue fox is seen on Yankicha Island of the southern Kuril Islands. Sakhalin Region, Russia, July 5, 2022. The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and the Russian Federation over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at their southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula at their northern end. Photo by Yuri Smityuk/Tass/Abaca/Sipa USA