China's armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China in late 2025. Some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, Reuters reported on 19 May, citing three European intelligence agencies and documents it reviewed.
Chinese military personnel have trained in Russia since at least 2024. The Russians' training on Chinese soil is the new development.
Meanwhile, China denies any direct military role in the war and casts itself as a neutral mediator.
Signed agreement and four internal reports
The training was outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement, signed by senior officers from both countries in Beijing on 2 July 2025.
It provided for Russian troops to train at Chinese military facilities, including in Beijing and Nanjing, while hundreds of Chinese personnel trained in Russia, and it prohibited any media coverage in either country or disclosure to third parties.
Four internal Russian military reports reviewed by Reuters described the sessions after they took place.
One, dated December 2025, covered combined-arms warfare for about 50 personnel at a People's Liberation Army Ground Force facility. Another, written by a Russian major, described drone training at the PLA's military aviation center in Yibin, using flight simulators and several types of FPV drones.
A November 2025 course at the Nanjing University of Military Engineering covered explosives, mine construction, demining, and clearing unexploded ordnance, and the report included photographs of Russian soldiers in uniform being taught by Chinese instructors.
The training also covered electronic warfare, army aviation, armored infantry, and counter-drone measures, the documents and assessments said.
Names in a Russian document
One of the agencies said it had confirmed the identities of a handful of Russian soldiers who trained in China and were then directly involved in drone combat operations in occupied Crimea and Russian-occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, with ranks from junior sergeant to lieutenant colonel.
Their names appeared in a Russian military document, seen by the journalists, that listed personnel traveling to China.
Reuters said it could not independently verify those individuals' subsequent role in the war, and the agency assessed it was highly probable that many who trained in China had gone to Ukraine.
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