Financial Times: “Wagner PMC” asked China for weapons, but Beijing did not respond

The Russian "Private Military Company Wagner" unsuccessfully asked China for weapons in early 2023. Beijing did not respond to a request for comment.

This is reported by the Financial Times with reference to the leak of secret Pentagon documents.

The representatives of the Wagner PMC requested ammunition and equipment from China, but as of the beginning of January, China had not sent them any weapons, even for testing, and had no contact with the Wagnerites in this regard.

China has repeatedly denied that it has plans to supply arms to Russia.

According to the secret documents of the Pentagon, by the beginning of January, Belarus had already supplied 50% of the unspecified weapons and offered to send the Wagnerites 300,000 shells for the VOG-17 grenade launcher. Wagner PMC also bought six SPG-9 grenade launchers and 180 grenades from Syria, when exactly is unknown.

The document also contains more detailed information on contacts between Wagner PMC and Turkey on arms sales.

According to the US assessment, "PMC Wagner" sent its people to Ankara to search for drones, electronic warfare and counter-battery systems, as well as howitzer artillery. Turkey said it could not export some of the requested weapons and equipment, such as howitzers, counter-battery systems and some anti-drone weapons.

• On April 6, it became known that classified military documents related to the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the war against Russia were published on social networks (Twitter and Telegram), and on April 7, it became known that a second batch of secret documents of the American authorities was published online.
• They are talking not only about Ukraine, but also about the activities of the USA in the Indo-Pacific region, in the Middle East, actions to fight terrorism and relations with China, about the UN, Hungary.
• Documents from the Pentagon began to appear on the Internet as early as January 2023 on some Discord servers where video game fans chatted. On April 13 , the FBI arrested a suspect in the leak of classified Pentagon data — 21-year-old National Guardsman of the US Air Force, Jack Teixeira.