The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned China’s ambassador to Ukraine, Ma Shengkun, to raise “serious concern” about Chinese soldiers fighting alongside the Russian army and information that Beijing was supplying weapons to Moscow.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said that it also had intelligence that Chinese citizens are working at a drone factory in Russia. Kyiv believes that Moscow may have stolen that drone technology by collaborating with those engineers.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least 155 Chinese were fighting with the Russian army, two of them already detained by Kyiv, and that he had “information” that China was supplying arms to Russia.
China denied those allegations, saying it had not provided weapons to “either party” in Russia’s more than three-year-old full-scale invasion.
“Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Perebyinis stressed that the participation of Chinese citizens in hostilities against Ukraine on the side of the aggressor state, as well as the involvement of Chinese companies in the production of military products in Russia, are of serious concern and contradict the spirit of partnership between Ukraine and China,” a ministry statement said.
“Evidence of these facts was passed by the Ukrainian special services to the Chinese side,” it added. “Perebyinis called on the Chinese side to take measures to stop supporting Russia in its aggression against Ukraine, which Beijing has repeatedly stated is not the case” and he “assured that our country values its strategic partnership with China and expects that China will refrain from taking any steps that could harm bilateral relations in the future.”
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The SBU said it will pass on to Beijing its information about the Chinese citizens working at the Russian drone plant. Kyiv suggests that Moscow could have stolen drone technology by collaborating with Chinese citizens.
“Based on our information, it is possible that Russia has stolen these technologies in coordination with these citizens and without agreements with the Chinese leadership,” Zelensky said. “The information also describes the relevant Chinese technologies for working on these drones. I think it will be important for Beijing to see how their partners are working with them.”
Denying the arms-supply allegations, Beijing’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, insisted that “the Chinese side has never provided lethal weapons to any party in the conflict, and strictly controls dual-use items.”
The two Chinese nationals captured by Ukrainian armed forces told a press conference in Kyiv that they hoped to be exchanged in a prisoner swap.
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