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Ukrainian Intelligence Reveals First Interrogation Details of Chinese POWs Captured Fighting for Russia
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has begun questioning two Chinese nationals captured while fighting for Russian forces, the agency announced on April 9.
The foreign nationals were providing testimony about how they joined the Russian military and what roles they performed in Ukraine, the SBU said.
Both prisoners are receiving appropriate medical care in line with the Geneva Conventions. They have been transferred to Kyiv for questioning, which is being conducted with interpreters and under conditions that comply with international humanitarian law.
According to the SBU, both men were taken prisoner during their first combat mission.
One of the prisoners was captured by soldiers of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion of Ukraine’s 157th Separate Mechanized Brigade near the village of Tarasivka in the Donetsk region. Troops of the 1st Mechanized Battalion of the 81st Airmobile Brigade near Bilohorivka took the other.
The first detainee, a 33-year-old unemployed man from China, said he was recruited by a Russian agent inside China and traveled to Moscow in February 2025, where he signed a military contract.
The second detainee, born in 1998, entered Russia in December 2024 under the guise of tourism. Once there, he applied to join the Russian military after responding to an online ad promising a signing bonus of 2 million rubles.
The SBU is currently verifying their testimonies and investigating the full extent of their participation in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
On April 9, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine possesses confirmed data on more than 150 Chinese citizens fighting on Russia’s side in the war.
“We know the real number is higher,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Ukraine believes that Russia’s open recruitment of Chinese citizens for combat in its war of aggression is a deliberate escalation. It’s yet another sign that Moscow simply wants to prolong the war.”
“Russia doesn’t care who dies in this insane war—it only wants the war to continue,” he added. “That’s why all responsible international actors must ensure Russia is stripped of its ability to wage war, including by using people like these.”
The president also published video footage from the interrogations, in which the two captured Chinese nationals describe the circumstances of their detention.
Earlier, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine summoned China’s chargé d’affaires in Kyiv following reports that Chinese nationals have joined Russian forces in combat against Ukraine.
