Ukraine says China supplying Russian military factories

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits a drone production facility in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Sept. 19, 2024. Sputnik/Valery Sharifulin/Pool via REUTERS

KYIV  -  Ukraine has confirmed information that China is supplying a range of important products to Russian military plants, the chief of Ukrainian foreign intelligence was quoted on Monday as saying.

"There is information that China supplies tooling machines, special chemical products, gunpowder, and components specifically to defence manufacturing industries," Oleh Ivashchenko told Ukrinform state news agency.

"We have confirmed data on 20 Russian factories," he said.

Reuters has requested a comment from the Chinese foreign ministry.

China, the world's second-largest economy, has forged even closer trade and other economic relations with Russia since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Western sanctions on the Russian economy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that China was supplying weapons and gunpowder to Russia, the first time he had openly accused Beijing of direct military assistance for Moscow.

China dismissed the accusation as "groundless" but Kyiv imposed sanctions on three Chinese entities.

Ivashchenko said Ukrainian intelligence also had information on at least five cases of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the aviation sector in 2024-2025, including the supply of equipment, spare parts and documentation.

He added that there were six cases of "large shipments" of speciality chemicals, without providing details.

Reuters could not independently confirm the assertions.

 (Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Pavel Polityuk, additional reporting Liz Lee in Beijing, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Gareth Jones)