Vladimir Putin is reportedly resorting to trying to convince Chinese people to join the Russian army using a duo of methods. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Zelensky claimed that his country’s troops had captured two Chinese citizens after a shootout in the Donetsk region. He added that they had found identity documents, bank cards and other evidence of their nationality. The US President, Donald Trump, has promised that his administration will examine evidence that Chinese mercenaries are fighting alongside Russian forces.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated in its daily report of the conflict for April 10 that Russia is reportedly “using social media and financial incentives to recruit Chinese nationals to voluntarily join” its military. Experts added that President Zelensky had stated that Russian forces are posting advertisements on TikTok and other social networks to recruit Chinese citizens, and claimed that a number had travelled to Moscow, where they “underwent medical examinations and one to two months of military training before deploying to Ukraine”.
Moreover, the institute said: “Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) reported on April 9 that a Russian representative directly recruited one of the Chinese citizens, whom Ukrainian forces recently captured in Ukraine, in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and that the Chinese citizen signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) upon arriving in Moscow in February 2025.”
The SBU has also reported that another captured Chinese citizen went to Russia for tourism in December 2024, and signed an MoD contract after “seeing an internet advertisement offering two million rubles (about $24,000) for joining the Russian military”.
It comes as the Kyiv Independent reported that a document showed photos and passport details of 13 Chinese citizens fighting in the Russian military as of April 2, and Chinese foreign affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said on April 10 that the country is unaware of the more than 155 Chinese citizens whom Ukraine claims are fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine.
The war rages on as the UK government aims to finalise plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
The Defence Secretary, John Healey, called these “real and substantial”, the Defence Secretary at the start of a further meeting of the “coalition of the willing” on Thursday.
He said at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels: “We cannot jeopardise the peace by forgetting about the war.
“The daily reality for millions of Ukrainians continues, drone attacks, missile strikes, brutal fighting on the front line, so we must put more pressure on President Putin to end his war and we must step up support for Ukraine both in the fight and in the push for peace.”