The European Union has expressed grave concern over reports that the Kremlin is developing attack drones in China.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are close allies, however, up until now the belief had been that Beijing was not assisting Moscow in the production of deadly weapons to be used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
If proven, the production of drones in China for Russian military use would “go against China’s official narrative that it does not provide lethal weapons to Russia”, an EU diplomatic spokesperson said.
News agency Reuters reported that IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms firm Almaz-Antey, has developed and tested a new drone called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with local assistance.
Reuters cited two European intelligence agency sources alongside documents reviewed by the news agency.
It was reported that a subsequent update from IEMZ Kupol revealed that drones like the G3 could be churned out at scale in the Chinese factory to deploy them in the “special military operation” – the name Russia gives to its war in Ukraine.
International Institute for Strategic Studies Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at a London-based defence think-tank, said the production and delivery of drones from China to Russia, if true, would be a notable policy change.
“If you look at what China is known to have delivered so far, it was mostly dual-use goods – it was components, sub-components, that could be used in weapon systems,” he told Reuters.
“This is what has been reported so far. But what we haven’t seen, at least in the open source, are documented transfers of whole weapon systems.”
Meanwhile, Kyiv was rocked by blasts this morning as Russia launched a series of attacks using drones.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko urged people to seek shelter, saying on Telegram: “Several enemy UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) are over and near the capital.”
Earlier President Zelensky claimed Putin was afraid to fire nuclear weapons because “he loves his life”.
“Nobody knows what’s in his head,” the embattled Ukrainian leader said in the interview with US network Fox News.
“He could use nuclear (weapons) on any country at any time – or not. (But) I don’t think that he will,” he added.
