By Svitlana Vlasova and Lauren Kent, CNN
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said two Chinese nationals fighting in the Russian army have been taken prisoner in eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukrainian forces fighting in the Donetsk region obtained the Chinese nationals' documents, bank cards and personal data.
"We have information that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier's units than just two. We are now finding out all the facts," Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. "I have instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to immediately contact Beijing and find out how China is going to react to this.
"Russia's involvement of China in this war in Europe, directly or indirectly, is a clear signal that Putin is going to do anything except end the war. He is looking for ways to continue fighting," Zelensky said.
It is unclear if the Chinese nationals that Ukraine says it captured are Chinese soldiers or volunteers. Western officials on Tuesday told CNN that they did not see "evidence of state sponsorship" in their cases.
The Ukrainian president also called on its allies in the United States and Europe to protest.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday that Kyiv has summoned Beijing's chargé d'affaires in Ukraine "to condemn this fact and demand an explanation."
"We hope that after this situation, the Americans will talk more with Ukrainians and then with Russians. And we hope that the Chinese side will also respond," Zelensky said Tuesday afternoon during a news conference.
"This is another country that militarily supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the side of Russia. This is another one after Iran and the North Korean military," he added.
CNN has reached out to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Russia's Ministry of Defense for comment.
China's foreign ministry said in a January 2024 social media post that its citizens should stay away from conflict zones, urging them to "avoid involvement in conflicts in any form - particularly refraining from participating in military actions of any party".
China has helped Russia ramp up its defence industrial base as it continues its war against Ukraine, senior Biden administration officials told CNN last year.
The support China has provided includes significant quantities of machine tools, drone and turbojet engines and technology for cruise missiles, microelectronics, and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to make propellant for weapons, the officials said in April 2024.
Meanwhile, Russia has also considerably strengthened its military relationship with North Korea over the last year, with the two signing a mutual defence agreement and Pyongyang sending its troops to fight for Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.
In January, Ukrainian forces operating in the Kursk region of Russia captured two North Korean soldiers.
Russia reclaiming ground in Kursk region
Russian attacks on Ukraine in the last 24 hours killed at least three people and injured 19 others, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia carried out attacks on the Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson, local officials said.
Elsewhere on the frontlines, Russia's Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that it has retaken one of the last villages held by Ukraine in the Kursk region, months after Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border incursion.
"The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces formations in the Kursk region. Units of the North group of forces have liberated the settlement of Guyevo in the Kursk region during offensive operations," the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The US-based conflict monitor the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update Monday that Russian forces have recently advanced in Kursk. ISW's map of the incursion shows that Ukrainian troops remain only in small parts of the Russian region.
Ukrainian troops have occupied part of the Kursk region since August 2024, though Russian forces have since recaptured much of the territory.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian regiment released video on Tuesday showing strikes on Russia's neighbouring Belgorod region, one day after Zelensky confirmed for the first time on Monday that his country's troops have been active in the region as they seek to protect Ukrainian towns near the border.
Ukraine's 225th separate assault regiment said the video shows its forces destroying two bridges in Belgorod, in the villages of Grafovka and Nadezhevka. CNN has verified that those are the locations shown in the video.
"Then the drone operations and clearing the ground followed," the regiment said in a Telegram post, confirming their presence on the ground in Russian territory.
Ukrainian forces began limited attacks in Russia's northwestern Belgorod region on 18 March, according to ISW, in areas just across the border from Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry previously said it defeated Ukrainian troops attacking Belgorod.
- CNN
