China secretly trained Russian troops in drone warfare, Reuters reports

China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in drone warfare late last year, a program that would deepen Moscow’s battlefield reach while putting Beijing’s claim of neutrality in Ukraine under new strain. Some of those servicemen later returned to fight in Ukraine, including in drone operations in Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia region.

The training was laid out in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed in Beijing on July 2, 2025. That document identified training in Beijing and Nanjing, and later materials tied to the program said the instruction went beyond drones to electronic warfare, army aviation, armored infantry, explosives handling, demining and counter-drone measures. Internal reports also pointed to Chinese military facilities in Shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou, where soldiers practiced with 82mm mortars, electronic warfare rifles and flight simulators for drone operations.

For Kyiv, Washington and NATO capitals, the significance lies less in the headcount than in the precedent. A relatively small training pipeline can still have outsized impact if it helps Russia improve one of the fastest-changing parts of the war. Drone warfare has become central to reconnaissance, targeting and attrition along the front, and any outside help that sharpens Russian tactics could alter how Western governments assess China’s role in the conflict and whether sanctions policy should expand beyond trade in components and dual-use goods.

The episode also lands at a sensitive moment in Sino-Russian diplomacy. Vladimir Putin was scheduled to visit China from May 19 to May 20, 2026, as Xi Jinping and Putin continue to present their countries as strategic partners bound by an “all-weather” relationship. Meduza, citing Reuters, said Chinese military personnel have been traveling to Russia for training since at least 2024, suggesting the exchange may run both ways and may be broader than previously understood.

China’s foreign ministry said it has consistently maintained an objective and impartial stance on the Ukraine crisis and works to promote peace talks. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said China does not provide lethal weapons to parties in the conflict and strictly controls exports of dual-use goods, including drones. But intelligence officials quoted in the reporting said training Russian personnel at an operational and tactical level, then seeing some of them return to the war, makes Beijing more directly involved in the European conflict than it has publicly acknowledged.