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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his forces have captured fighters from China who were supporting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, marking the first time Chinese citizens have been taken captive during the war.
The Ukrainian president said on Tuesday that he had instructed his foreign minister Andriy Sybiha to “immediately contact Beijing” for an official explanation and accused China of aligning itself with Russia in the war.
Sybiha said in a statement that he had summoned the Chinese chargé d’affaires in Kyiv.
“This is another country that militarily supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is another one after Iran and the North Korean military,” said Zelenskyy.
“But there is a difference: the North Koreans fought against us on the front in [the Russian region of] Kursk, the Chinese are fighting on the territory of Ukraine,” he said, adding that he expected a response from the US and Europe. Iran has only provided military equipment to Russia in this war.
The two Chinese fighters, aged 33 and 31, had both been recruited by Russian military officials to sign up as contract soldiers, according to Ukrainian officials familiar with the matter.
They were part of a unit of six fighting with Russian soldiers in the eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow’s army has been on the offensive. Zelenskyy said documents and bank cards had confirmed the identities and nationality of the men.
The Ukrainian president shared a video on his Telegram channel purporting to show one of the Chinese fighters in custody. The man is seen with his hands tied, wearing a military uniform.
It is unclear whether the Chinese fighters were soldiers in the country’s army or mercenaries who joined Russia’s military on their own. There have been reports of Chinese nationals joining the Russian army independently.
Zelenskyy said that Kyiv has “information that there are significantly more Chinese citizens” fighting in Russia’s army and that he had tasked his intelligence agencies with clarifying the facts.
Sybiha said the participation of Chinese citizens in the Russian army “calls into question China’s declared position on peace and undermines trust in Beijing as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council”.
Moscow has also recruited mercenaries from countries across the world to fight with its forces in Ukraine. Many have come from Cuba, India, Yemen and several African nations.
The only regular soldiers known to have officially entered the war have come from North Korea. Pyongyang sent more than 11,000 troops to help Russia last autumn, according to Ukrainian and western officials.
About 4,000 of those troops have been killed or wounded in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where they are helping Moscow to push Ukrainian soldiers out of the area.
Zelenskyy on Monday confirmed for the first time that Kyiv’s forces were fighting in Russia’s Belgorod region, saying the cross-border operation was “absolutely justified” to protect towns in northeastern Ukraine.
“The war must return to where it came from,” he added.
Zelenskyy’s comments come as a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire covering energy infrastructure and the Black Sea shows signs of faltering, with both Kyiv and Moscow accusing each other of violations.
Russia has in recent days launched large-scale missile and drone attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine, including a barrage on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed 11 adults and nine children on Friday.
US President Donald Trump on Monday criticised the attacks, saying that Russia was “bombing like crazy right now . . . It’s a horrible thing”.
Trump previously said he was “pissed off” with Russian President Vladimir Putin for foot-dragging in talks over a full 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine. Zelenskyy has said Russia has no intention of stopping its invasion.
