According to information revealed by two European intelligence agency personnel and documents seen by Reuters, Russia has established a weapons program in China aimed at developing and producing long-range attack drones for the conflict in Ukraine. The White House has expressed concern.
One document shows that a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned weapons company Almaz-Antey, IEMZ Kupol, with the assistance of local experts in China, has developed a new type of drone called Garpiya-3 (G3) and conducted flight tests. In a report submitted to the Russian Ministry of Defense earlier this year, Kupol outlined the progress of the company’s work.
In subsequent updates, Kupol informed the Russian Ministry of Defense that it is capable of mass-producing drones, including the G3, at a factory in China for deployment in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Kupol, Almaz-Antey, and the Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry told Reuters that they were unaware of such a project and noted that Beijing strictly controls the export of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said on Wednesday (September 25) that the U.S. is deeply concerned about reports of a secret combat drone project in China involving Russia, which appears to be an example of Chinese companies providing lethal support to sanctioned Russian entities.
The spokesperson stated that the White House has not seen any evidence indicating Beijing’s knowledge of these transactions, but China has a responsibility to ensure that companies do not provide lethal military assistance to Russia.
Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that if China’s delivery of drones to Russia is confirmed, it would be a significant development.
“Looking at what China has sent so far, you’ll find that most of it is dual-use goods, components, sub-components for weapon systems,” he told Reuters. “This would be the first time we have seen a verifiable transfer of an entire weapons system.”
However, Samuel Bendett, a senior research analyst at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington, warned that aiding Moscow’s war machine could lead to international sanctions, and Beijing should be cautious.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been able to replenish its military equipment with Western-manufactured chips and semiconductors despite severe Western sanctions.
On September 24, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, revealed that approximately 60% of foreign components in Russian weapons found on the Ukrainian battlefield originated from China.
The U.S. State Department and the Ukrainian government did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comments. U.S. officials expressed concerns last week about China’s support for the Russian war machine but refused to provide specific details.
According to reports submitted by Kupol to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the G3 drone has a range of approximately 2,000 kilometers and a payload of 50 kilograms. Samples of G3 from China and other drone models have been sent to Kupol in Russia for further testing, with Chinese experts also involved.
These documents do not specify the Chinese drone experts involved in the project, and Reuters was unable to confirm their identities.
Based on two invoices independently reviewed by Reuters, Kupol received seven military drones, including two G3 models, manufactured in China at its headquarters in Izhevsk, Russia. These invoices, issued by a Russian company last summer to Kupol, served as intermediaries with Chinese suppliers. The invoices did not specify delivery dates or the Chinese supplier and one invoice required payment in Chinese yuan.
These sources stated that providing drone samples to Kupol was the first concrete evidence they found since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 that China had delivered entire drones manufactured in China to Russia.
Due to the sensitivity of the information, these sources requested anonymity for themselves and their organizations, as well as to withhold certain details related to the documents, including exact dates.
The sources showed Reuters five documents, including two reports submitted to the Ministry of Defense by Kupol in the first half of this year and two invoices, to support their claim that a project to manufacture drones for Russia’s warfare in Ukraine is underway in China, not previously reported.
The reports submitted by Kupol to the Ministry of Defense did not specify the specific location of the project. Reuters was also unable to confirm whether the Ministry of Defense had approved the further mass production by the company.
Beijing has repeatedly denied that the Chinese Communist Party or Chinese companies provide weapons for the conflict in Ukraine, stating that they remain “neutral.” In response to Reuters’ questions, the Chinese Foreign Ministry mentioned that China and Russia do not have international trade restrictions.
The newly reported documents reveal that Kupol, a Russian state-owned company, further purchased entire drones from China.
Both Russia and Ukraine are accelerating drone production, with drones becoming effective weapons in warfare.
David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and head of the Science and International Security Institute research group, extensively studied Chinese and Russian cooperation in drone production. He told Reuters that Kupol could evade Western sanctions against Russia by establishing production facilities in China.
However, Bendett from CNAS cautioned that Beijing should proceed cautiously. He mentioned that having a formal factory produce drones for Russia could lead to more serious sanctions against China, so it is unclear to what extent China would want to expose itself.
According to an exclusive CNN report last year on March 16, a modified and weaponized Chinese-made drone was shot down in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian military personnel discovered that the drone, a Mugin-5 commercial drone manufactured by Xiamen Yun Lu Zhi Hui Co., Ltd., was carrying a bomb weighing about 44 pounds (20 kilograms).
According to reports sent by Kupol to the Ministry of Defense, the G3 is an upgraded version of the Garpiya-A1 combat drone, redesigned by Chinese experts based on the blueprint of the Garpiya-A1.
Kupol stated that within eight months, a project in China would be ready to produce an attack drone REM 1 designed by Chinese experts with a payload of 400 kilograms, similar to the U.S. Reaper drone, according to two European intelligence sources.
It was revealed that another Russian defense company named TSK Vektor acted as an intermediary between Kupol and a Chinese supplier in the project. The Russian company reportedly collaborated with Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial based in Shenzhen, but did not specify Redlepus’s role.
Both TSK Vector and Redlepus did not respond to requests for comments.
Another document seen by Reuters revealed that Kupol, TSK Vektor, and Redlepus planned to establish a Russian-Chinese drone research and production center in the Kashgar region of Xinjiang Province, China.
Reuters could not verify the origin of the document which displayed logos of the three companies, nor could it confirm the intended recipient. The document mentioned that the “Advanced Drone Research and Manufacturing Base,” covering 80 hectares, is expected to produce 800 drones annually, though it did not provide a timeline for when operations would commence.
Last week, Russian President Putin announced that the Russian military had received approximately 140,000 drones by 2023 and plans to increase this number tenfold this year.
“Whoever is able to respond faster to the needs on the battlefield will win,” he stated at a drone production conference in St. Petersburg.
A survey report published by Nikkei Asia on July 1st last year found that between December 2022 and April 2023, Russian companies imported at least 37 Chinese drones worth about $103,000. These drones were clearly labeled in customs records as “for special military operations,” but Beijing denied it.