The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zensky, said that Beijing knows that Russia is recruiting its citizens to fight in Ukraine, claiming that kyiv had the details of at least 155 Chinese nationals who had been deployed in front. The claim occurred hours after Beijing rejected the idea that Chinese citizens had been recruited in large quantities to fight with Russia, and warned their citizens to “avoid participation in armed conflicts.”
Zensky, a day before, said that the Ukraine army had captured two Chinese citizens fighting for Russia in the east region of Donetsk. He published a video of one of them, wearing military fatigue and with his hands tied, which imitated combat sounds and pronounced several words in Mandarin.
“The ‘Chinese’ problem is serious. There are 155 people with names and passport details fighting the Ukrainians in the territory of Ukraine,” Zensky told journalists in kyiv. A document shared with Agite France-Presse by a senior Ukrainian official contained the alleged names and details of the passport of 168 Chinese citizens that Kyiv said he had been recruited by the Army of Russia, according to his intelligence.
Zensky said he believed that there were “many more” and that more information was being collected. “It is clear how they are recruited. One of the schemes is through social networks, in particular Tiktok and other Chinese social networks, where Russians distribute commercials,” Zensky said.
‘Absolutely without foundation’ –
The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of China, Lin Jian, had previously rejected Zensky’s statement that “many” Chinese citizens had been recruited by Russia to fight as “absolutely unfounded.” “The Chinese government has always asked its citizens to remain away from the armed conflict areas (Y) avoid participation in armed conflicts in any way,” he said.
He added that Beijing was verifying relevant information about Chinese citizens captured with Kyiv. When asked about Zensky’s claims in a daily press news session, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.
China is presented as a neutral part in the three -year war and says that it is not sending lethal assistance to any of the parties, unlike the United States and other Western nations. But he is a close political and economic partner of Russia, and NATO members have described Beijing in a “decisive facilitator” or Moscow’s offensive, which has never condemned.
]
