Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukrainian intelligence had identified 155 Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russian forces, a day after Ukraine said two Chinese nationals were captured in the country. <\/p>\n
The Chinese nationals had been recruited through advertisements, including on social media, Zelensky said in a briefing Wednesday. <\/p>\n
China has consistently denied any involvement in the war. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier Wednesday that any claims that Chinese citizens are fighting in Ukraine were \u201cgroundless.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to emphasize that the Chinese government has always instructed its citizens to stay away from areas of armed conflict and avoid getting involved in the conflict in any form, especially avoiding participation in any party\u2019s military operations,\u201d spokesperson Lin Jian said in a press conference. <\/p>\n
Most of the contracts in the document are dated \u201c2024\u201d and straddle different military units. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are collecting information and we believe that there are more, many more,\u201d Zelensky said Wednesday, before claiming that Beijing was aware of Russians placing recruitment videos on Chinese social networks. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese people arrive to the Russian Federation, to Moscow. Medical examinations last three to four days. Training centers are for one to two months. They fight on the territory of Ukraine,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Asked whether he thought the presence of Chinese nationals in Ukraine was a result of official Beijing policy, Zelensky said: \u201cI don\u2019t have an answer to this question yet. The Security Service of Ukraine will work on it \u2026 We are not saying that someone gave any command, we do not have such information.\u201d <\/p>\n
The allegations of Chinese nationals fighting alongside Russian forces follow claims by Ukraine that two Chinese nationals fighting in the Russian army have been taken prisoner in eastern Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukrainian forces fighting in the Donetsk region obtained the Chinese nationals\u2019 documents, bank cards and personal data. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian president on Wednesday added that Ukraine was \u201cready to exchange\u201d the two individuals for Ukrainian prisoners of war. <\/p>\n
The Kremlin spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment on the claim that Chinese nationals were allegedly captured in Ukraine. Beijing said on Wednesday that it was \u201ccurrently verifying\u201d the situation with Ukraine. <\/p>\n
One of the Chinese nationals captured fighting in eastern Ukraine had paid to join the Russian military through an intermediary in China, with the goal of becoming a Russian citizen, according to the Ukrainian military. <\/p>\n
The Chinese detainee, who Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday was taken as a prisoner of war alongside a second Chinese national, was likely speaking under duress. <\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to the prisoner, he joined the Russian military through an intermediary in China, paying RUB 300,000 ($3,500) for the opportunity to enlist in the Russian Armed Forces,\u201d the communications department of the Luhansk Operational Tactical Group said in a statement to Ukrainian media. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe stated that his primary motivation was the desire to become a serviceman and obtain Russian Federation citizenship. He also mentioned that some group members had legal issues in China,\u201d the statement to news outlet Ukrainska Pravda said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe reported that he had received training in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk Oblast as part of a group of Chinese nationals. The training covered basic military skills and was conducted without an interpreter, relying on gestures and a mobile translator for communication.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian military tactical group said the man was taken prisoner when a Russian assault group chose to surrender under fire from Ukrainian soldiers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe individual is currently cooperating with Ukrainian investigative agencies, and his identity and citizenship have been confirmed. He noted that his family was aware of his intentions to go to Russia, although he officially travelled as a tourist,\u201d the statement to Ukrainska Pravda said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukrainian intelligence had identified 155 Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russian forces, a day after Ukraine said two Chinese nationals were captured in the country. The Chinese nationals had been recruited through advertisements, including on social media, Zelensky said in a briefing Wednesday. China has consistently denied any involvement <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}