Chinese fight in Russian army in Ukraine

Mark O'Neill April 11, 2025 17:47

“After I surrendered to the Ukrainians, the Russians dropped on us an explosive with gas. I started to breathe it and thought I was going to die. I lost consciousness. Then a Ukrainian soldier pulled me out by the scruff of the neck. I lived.”

This was the dramatic account of Wang Guangjun, 34, from Zhengzhou, Henan province. He is one of the first two Chinese soldiers in the Russian army to be captured by Ukraine.

He said that he joined up to receive military training and earn Russian citizenship. He was trained in Luhansk, a province of east Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2014.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said that, according to his intelligence, 155 Chinese were fighting in Russia’s invasion army.

A French diplomat said that, since the start of the invasion in February 2022, several hundred Chinese had taken part. They wore Russian army uniforms and held fake Russian identity cards. Neither Russia nor China acknowledges their presence, nor that of the 12,000 North Korean soldiers. They went on their own and were not sent by their government, the diplomat said.

The other soldier captured was Zhang Renbo, from Jiangxi. He said that he had paid 300,000 roubles (US$3,600) to a middleman in China to arrange the recruitment.

“I was captured during my first combat mission. Prior to that, I had no combat experience nor held a weapon,” he said. He was given an AK-47. “Some Chinese with me had legal issues at home.”

Russia has recruited thousands of foreign mercenaries, from Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Cuba, Nigeria, Somalia and other African countries. Most paid large fees to middlemen on the promise of jobs in Russia paying much more than they earned at home.

Few were told that they would be sent to the front line to fight in combat.

Russia has recruited Chinese through slick advertisements that have been in social media for several months.

One, in Russian with Chinese sub-titles, showed athletic men training in a gymnasium and then putting on army uniform and being given automatic weapons.

“Do you want to show your strength? Will you become this kind of defender? You are a man. Be it!” it said. It offered a monthly salary of US$2,500.

It does not mention the Ukraine war or the fact that Chinese would be sent to the front line.

China controls the Internet more tightly than most governments in the world. The fact that these advertisements have been available, and seen by hundreds of thousands, shows the complicity of the government in the recruitment.

Like other foreigners, Chinese in the Russian army face many obstacles. Most do not speak Russian, the language of their commanders and their comrades. In a combat situation, a wrong decision could cost them their life.

The culture of the Russian military is brutal, with violence, hazing and heavy consumption of vodka. Many soldiers despise foreigners and people from the Far East.

The most dramatic statement from a Chinese recruit came last year. In a video in a field in Eastern Ukraine in which all the vegetation had been destroyed, he said: “I am wounded but my unit will not treat me. I called our embassy in Moscow. They said that, since I had come on my own and had not been sent by them, they would not help.”

Weeping, he looked intensely at the camera: “Please help me. Otherwise I will die.”

Last month Chai Jing, a Chinese journalist, interviewed a Chinese who flew to Russia in November 2023 on a tourist visa and enlisted. He was in Bakmut part of an assault team close to the front line.

He said that he joined to make money and to experience war. “I could have joined either side, but there were more Chinese fighters on the Russian side, probably because visas were easier to obtain. I felt Russia was helping China.”

Chai also interviewed Chinese soldiers on the Ukrainian side but there were far fewer of them.

Asked to explain the presence of the Chinese soldiers in the invasion of a sovereign country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said this week:

“The idea that significant numbers are involved in the war is totally unfounded. The Chinese government always asks Chinese nationals to stay away from areas of armed conflict. Avoid any form of involvement in armed conflict and in particular avoid participation in any party’s military operations,” he said.

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.