Ukraine says it captured 2 Chinese soldiers fighting for Russia in Donetsk region

The Ukrainian military has captured two Chinese men fighting with the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Tuesday. 

Zelenskyy said a clash with Chinese soldiers occurred near the villages of Tarasivka and Bilohorivka in the Donetsk region, where six Chinese military personnel engaged Ukrainian troops. 

Zelenskyy noted that previously captured North Korean soldiers were fighting in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces captured territory, while the Chinese were caught on Ukrainian soil. 

Ukraine has information that there are “significantly more” Chinese fighting alongside the Russians in the more than three-year war, Zelenskyy said, posting a video of one of the men captured on X. Ukraine plans to “immediately contact Beijing and find out how China is going to react to this,” he added.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X that the capture “puts into question China’s declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing’s credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council.”

China has provided strong diplomatic support for Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, which was widely criticized in the West. Beijing has also contributed an economic lifeline through the trade in energy and consumer goods.

However, China is not known to have provided Russia with weapons or military expertise, unlike Iran and North Korea, with the latter even providing troops, according to American and South Korean officials. 

Russia allows foreigners to enlist in its military, as does Ukraine. The pay offered by Moscow makes serving for Russia attractive. 

Ukraine not in ‘imminent danger’: U.S. general

Meanwhile, Russia is close to regaining full control of its western Kursk region after pushing Ukrainian forces from one of their last footholds there, the settlement of Guyevo, the regional governor and state media said on Tuesday.

Russia has been trying to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk since August last year, after Kyiv’s troops mounted a surprise incursion that embarrassed President Vladimir Putin and which Zelenskyy hoped would give him a bargaining chip in any future talks.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on that development.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting, and both sides are believed to be readying a spring-summer campaign, where battlefield gains have more readily occurred in the war than during the arduous winter months.

Gen. Christopher Cavoli, U.S. European Command leader, said Tuesday that Ukraine are in “good defensive positions” and have inflicted large numbers of Russian casualties in recent weeks.

“I do not see the Ukrainians being in imminent danger of collapse. I do see the Russians struggling to make the kind of gains they did last autumn,” Cavoli testified at a U.S. House armed services committee hearing.