Ukraine war: China provides Russia with unlimited gifts to build lethal drones

Russia is catching up with Ukraine in drone production, largely due to substantial financial support from China and the advantage of having production lines far from the front lines.

A senior Ukrainian official told Politico EU that China is playing a role in the conflict, even though Beijing continues to deny such claims.

However, Oleh Aleksandrov, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service, claimed that Russia is heavily reliant on Chinese-supplied spare parts to build its drones.

“Chinese manufacturers provide them with hardware, electronics, navigation, optical and telemetry systems, engines, microcircuits, processor modules, antenna field systems, control boards, navigation. They use so-called shell companies, change names, do everything to avoid being subject to export control and avoid sanctions for their activities,” he told the outlet.

“Officially, China complies with all regulations — but only on paper,” he added.

This support is helping Moscow close the gap as Kyiv ramps up its own drone production. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently announced that Ukraine aims to produce 2.5 million tactical drones and 300,000 long-range drones by the end of the year.

(QG - Source: Politico EU - Picture : © Unsplash)