House Select Committee Investigates Reports of Chinese Mercenaries in Ukraine

A letter sent to the State Department seeks answers about the extent to which Chinese mercenaries are fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

A serviceman of Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) escorts Chinese national Wang Guangjung (R) upon his arrival to attend a press conference with Chinese national Zhang Renbo (C) in Kyiv on April 14, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two Chinese nationals were captured by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region during what they claimed to be their first combat mission. Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty Images

A congressional committee is investigating reports that more than a hundred Chinese nationals are serving as mercenaries for the Russian military in Ukraine.

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has requested information from the State Department about the Ukrainian government’s claims that Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia in the occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that Kyiv had collected detailed intelligence on at least 150 Chinese mercenaries, he said, who were recruited by Moscow via social media.

The claim was made shortly after Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian forces had captured two Chinese men fighting alongside the Russian army on Ukrainian soil.

Zelenskyy’s comments marked the first time that the Ukrainian government made such a claim about Chinese fighters, although Russia is believed to have deployed approximately 10,000 North Korean troops to the front lines as it has struggled to replenish its battlefield losses.

The CCP has denied sending anyone to fight for Russia.

The Select Committee has sent a letter to the State Department requesting a classified briefing on the veracity of the reports, as well as a rundown of any diplomatic contacts with China that the Department has had concerning the reports and any policies being considered by the Trump administration in response.

According to a copy of the Select Committee’s letter shared with The Epoch Times, it is unlikely that such a large number of Chinese nationals could be fighting for Russia without at least tacit approval from the CCP.

“The reported presence of PRC mercenaries in Ukraine is only the latest evidence of Beijing’s extensive support for Russia’s war effort,” the letter reads, using an acronym for the official name of communist China, the People’s Republic of China.

“Given the Chinese Communist Party’s broad control in Chinese society, it is clear that Russia’s recruitment campaign of PRC nationals could not exist without at least the tacit approval of the Party.”

To that end, the Select Committee’s letter notes that the intelligence community’s most recent annual threat assessment found that the CCP is providing economic and security assistance for Russia’s war in Ukraine by supporting the Russian defense industrial sector and providing dual-use technologies, including components used for weapons systems.

A State Department spokesperson said the department does not comment on congressional correspondence.

“China is a major enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “China provides nearly 80 percent of the dual-use items Russia needs to sustain the war. Continued cooperation between these two nuclear powers will only further contribute to global instability and make the United States and other countries less safe, less secure, and less prosperous.”

Beijing and Moscow have grown closer since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In the weeks before the invasion, the two powers agreed to a so-called “no limits” partnership. In 2023, leaders from Beijing and Moscow signed a comprehensive strategic partnership, agreeing to coordinate on issues of importance in diplomatic, economic, and military affairs.

The Select Committee’s letter frames the potential involvement of Chinese mercenaries in the Russian forces as further evidence that the two powers are aligning to undermine the United States and its allies by any means necessary.

“The recent reporting on Chinese mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, in addition to the PRC’s broader support for the Russian war effort, underscores the deepening alignment between the autocratic regimes in Beijing and Moscow, including their mutual support and encouragement of each other’s expansionist aims.”