Beijing has denied any state involvement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that at least 155 Chinese troops are fighting alongside Russian forces as Moscow prepares to launch a fresh spring offensive.
Speaking to reporters on April 9, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained the surnames, passport information, and service assignments of 155 Chinese nationals allegedly serving in the Russian military, adding that “many more” could be involved as the war enters its fourth year.
Zelenskyy stopped short of accusing Beijing of supplying Moscow with manpower, and said that Chinese authorities are aware that Russian recruiters are actively targeting Chinese citizens on domestic social media platforms.
“It is obvious that these are not isolated cases, but systematic Russian work, in particular, on the territory and under the jurisdiction of China, to recruit citizens of this country for the war,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on his official Telegram channel.
The remarks follow the capture of two Chinese earlier this week in Donetsk, a heavily contested region in eastern Ukraine that has been partially controlled by a Moscow-backed separatist republic since 2014. In response, Zelenskyy instructed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to urgently reach out to Beijing for clarification.
Sybiha said he summoned China’s chargé d’affaires to deliver a formal protest and demand an explanation.
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“Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia’s invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China’s declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing’s credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council,” the foreign minister wrote on X.
On April 9, China’s Foreign Ministry dismissed Zelenskyy’s claims that Chinese nationals were fighting alongside Russian forces as “groundless.” The following day, ministry spokesperson Lin Jian rejected any suggestion of state involvement.
Lin said at a regularly scheduled news conference that the regime always asks its citizens to avoid getting involved in any armed conflicts or any military operations and stay away from those areas.
China, which has declared a “no-limits” partnership with Russia, has sought to present itself as a neutral mediator in efforts to end the war. Meanwhile, evidence of its support for Moscow’s war machine through the supply of critical components has surfaced.
According to an analysis of Chinese customs data by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Beijing has exported over $300 million worth of dual-use goods—items with both civilian and military applications—to Russia every month since February 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated to a full-blown war.
The presence of Chinese fighters in Ukraine echoes a similar development involving North Korea, which Kyiv said sent around 12,000 troops to Russia’s Kursk region in 2024 to reinforce defensive lines following a Ukrainian cross-border offensive.
In a March report, South Korean intelligence estimated more than 4,000 casualties among Pyongyang’s deployed forces, while UK Defense Intelligence placed the total number of casualties at over 5,000, with around a third killed in action.
Unlike the Chinese nationals captured on Ukrainian territory, North Korean troops have been reported to operate strictly on Russian soil, particularly in Kursk.
