(KYIV) – China is providing a continuous supply of jet engines to Russia for its new jet powered drones, a development that is placing additional strain on Ukrainian air defences and complicating efforts to end the war.
The engines, which power drones flying at speeds of 600 to 700 kilometres per hour, are being sold to Russia as “civilian products” and do not fall under the dual use category, according to military expert Oleksiy Melnyk from the Razumkov Centre. This loophole allows Beijing to deny providing weapons to Moscow while materially supporting its war effort.
“China is for China,” Melnyk told TVP World. “We have regular meetings with Chinese experts, with Chinese diplomats, officials, and you just hear some quotes of the last Communist Party summit. You hear how peaceful China is and the five principles of China’s foreign policy, etc. And they just don’t care about what kind of damage is produced by their support for Russia.”
Melnyk noted that China also denies providing Russia with any weapons, which is technically true because the jet engines are not even in the dual use category. “They sell them to Russia as civilian products,” he said.
The expert described China as a “very hard communicator or counterpart.” He also acknowledged that the Ukrainian government has failed to establish even a kind of partnership with China, and that some Ukrainian officials previously made great mistakes by criticising China publicly, either for good reasons or not, in an attempt to please US President Donald Trump. “Donald Trump didn’t appreciate this, but Chinese officials noticed this harsh remarks to China,” Melnyk said. “So I should say that our relationship between Kyiv and Beijing are not very productive.”
When asked who could talk to China and deliver Ukraine’s important messages, Melnyk was doubtful about the US role. “I’m afraid it’s not Trump,” he said. “And maybe some European leaders or the European Union as a union can talk to China and try to persuade them for some compromises regarding their support for Russian war.”
The expert also noted that Russia’s drone production facilities are located far from the front line, almost out of reach of Ukrainian long range strikes, and that the continuous supply of jet engines from China allows Moscow to multiply its production of these weapons. This, he said, is “a big challenge that actually Ukraine has very little power to deal with.”
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