Russia has set up a weapons program in China to develop and manufacture long-range unmanned aerial vehicles to be used in the war against Ukraine, according to two European intelligence agency sources and documents reviewed by Reuters.
According to one of the documents, a report Kupol sent to Russia’s state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey earlier this year describing its work, Kupol has developed and flight-tested in China a new unmanned model aircraft called “Harpy-3” (G3) with the help of local specialists.
In a subsequent update, Kupol tells the Ministry of Defense that it has been able to produce drones, including the Harpy-3, on a large scale at a factory in China so that the weapons can be used in the “special military operation” in Ukraine – the term Moscow uses for the war.
Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment for this article. China’s foreign ministry told Reuters it was not aware of such a project, adding that Beijing has strict measures to control the export of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defense think tank, said China’s delivery of drones to Russia, if confirmed, would be a significant event.
Russia has set up a weapons program in China to develop and manufacture long-range unmanned aerial vehicles to be used in the war against Ukraine, according to two European intelligence agency sources and documents reviewed by Reuters.
According to one of the documents, a report Kupol sent to Russia’s state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey earlier this year describing its work, Kupol has developed and flight-tested in China a new unmanned model aircraft called “Harpy-3” (G3) with the help of local specialists.
“If you look at what China is known to have supplied so far, it’s mostly dual-use goods – it’s components, sub-components that can be used in weapons systems,” he told Reuters. “This is what has been reported so far. But what we really haven’t seen, at least in the open sources, are documented transfers of entire weapons systems.”
Still, Samuel Bendet, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, said Beijing would be hesitant to subject itself to international sanctions to help Moscow’s war machine. He said more information was needed to establish that China hosted the production of Russian military drones.
The White House National Security Council said it was deeply troubled by a Reuters report on the drone program, which it said appeared to be an example of a Chinese company providing lethal military aid to a US-sanctioned Russian firm.
The White House has seen nothing to suggest that the Chinese government was aware of the transactions in question, but China has an obligation to ensure that companies do not provide lethal aid to Russia for use by its military, the spokesman added.
Asked about the Reuters report, a NATO spokesman said by email: “These reports are deeply troubling and allies are consulting on this matter.”
“The Chinese government has a duty to ensure that its companies do not provide lethal military aid to Russia,” added spokesperson Farah Dahlala. “China cannot continue to fuel Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II without affecting its interests and reputation.”
Britain’s Foreign Office has called on China to stop providing diplomatic and material support to Russia’s military efforts.
“We are extremely concerned by reports that Russia is manufacturing military drones in China,” a spokesman said.
“This adds to the growing body of open-source evidence that Chinese companies are enabling Russia to illegally invade Ukraine.” The supply of weapons would be in direct contradiction to China’s statements that it will not provide weapons to the relevant parties in the conflict.”
Harpy 3 can travel about 2,000 km with a payload of 50 kg, according to reports to the Russian Ministry of Defense by Kupol, which was placed under US sanctions in December 2023. Samples of Harpy 3 and some others models of unmanned aerial vehicles made in China were delivered to Kupol in Russia for further testing, again involving Chinese experts, they said.
The documents did not name the Chinese drone specialists involved in the project they described, and Reuters was unable to identify them.
According to two separate documents reviewed by Reuters, which represent invoices sent to Kupol over the summer by a Russian firm that the two European intelligence sources said served as an intermediary with Chinese suppliers, Kupol took delivery of seven Chinese-made military drones , including two Harpy 3s, at its headquarters in the Russian city of Izhevsk. The invoices, one of which required payment in Chinese yuan, did not specify delivery dates or identify suppliers in China.
The two intelligence sources said the delivery of the drone samples to Kupol was the first concrete evidence their agency had found of the delivery of entire Chinese-made drones to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022
They asked that neither they nor their organization be identified because of the sensitivity of the information. They also requested that certain details related to the documents, including their exact dates, not be disclosed.
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