"China has become the most important enabler of Russia’s war machine", 19 June 2025

THE DRONES fly thick and fast towards Kyiv these days. Almost 500 were fired in a recent Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital, in the early hours of June 10th. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, fears that at current rates of production Russia may soon be able to launch raids that involve twice the number of machines. To pick through the debris and peer inside those weapons is to come face to face with a grim reality. China is the most important—perhaps decisive—enabler of Russia’s war machine.

Consider the Shahed, an Iranian-designed attack drone which is now mass-produced inside Russia (the wreckage of one is pictured, in Kyiv). Such drones were once stuffed with American microelectronics, smuggled in via Asia to circumvent sanctions. The newest ones, however, are filled with Chinese parts...

Western officials tell The Economist that China has been providing various forms of support to Russia since 2023, including critical components of weaponry and civilian drones. Much of that is publicly documented in analysis of weapons debris, through open-source tracking of shipments and in cases of American sanctions against Chinese companies. But, importantly, these officials also point to “small quantities of artillery ammunition and military UAVs” (drones)...

Last year Reuters, a news agency, reported that AO IEMZ Kupol, part of a Russian state-owned arms company, had developed and flight-tested a new drone model, the Garpiya-3—essentially a knock-off of the Iranian-designed Shahed—in China, with the help of Chinese firms. In October America’s Treasury Department put sanctions on two Chinese companies involved, one of which had provided the drone’s engine.

In May 2024 Sir Grant Shapps, who was then Britain’s defence secretary, declassified intelligence on the drone in order to expose such co-operation. “We knew exactly where it was,” he says. Some European intelligence officials say they have yet to see evidence of Chinese lethal aid. But there is no doubt that the Garpiya-3 was a lethal system, not a dual-use aircraft, says Sir Grant...