One of the Chinese citizens captured by Ukrainian soldiers on April 8 said that he paid 300 000 rubles (approximately $3 470) to join the Russian army. All in order to obtain Russian citizenship.
Ukrinform was informed about this by the head of the Public Relations Group of the Luhansk Military District, Lieutenant Colonel Dmytro Zaporozhets.
The Chinese man was promised Russian citizenship by an intermediary in China, to whom he paid money. The prisoner claims that he officially came to the Russian Federation as a tourist, although his family knew about his further intentions.
He underwent military training in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region, where there were other Chinese citizens in the group. During the training, they did not have an interpreter, and communication took place through gestures and translation in a mobile application.
A prisoner from China is cooperating with Ukrainian law enforcement officers. Using gestures and sounds that mimic a drone, he tried to tell investigators what happened on the battlefield and how they made the decision to surrender.
What preceded
Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 8 that two Chinese citizens who fought as part of the Russian army were captured in the Donetsk region.
The Presidentʼs Office noted that Ukrainian defenders engaged in battle with six Chinese soldiers near the settlements of Tarasivka and Bilohorivka in the Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Chinese chargé dʼaffaires, demanding an explanation for the participation of citizens of that country in the war.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was “checking the information with the Ukrainian side”. The Foreign Ministry stressed that the Chinese government has always asked its citizens to “stay away from armed conflict zones” and avoid any participation in hostilities or conflicts.
This is the first known case of Chinese military personnel participating in the war against Ukraine on the side of the Russian Federation. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, China has never publicly supported Ukraine. Beijing has supported Moscow and condemned sanctions against it.
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