❓WHAT HAPPENED: Ukraine has arrested a Chinese father and son accused of trying to smuggle classified missile technology out of the country.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Ukraine’s SBU security service, two Chinese nationals, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
📍WHEN & WHERE: Kiev, Ukraine, July 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The SBU detained two citizens of the People’s Republic of China in Kyiv who were attempting to illegally export secret documentation on the Ukrainian RK-360MC Neptune missile system to China.” – SBU statement
🎯IMPACT: The case deepens tensions between Ukraine and China, already strained over accusations that Beijing supports Russia’s war effort and allows the Russian military to recruit Chinese nationals.
Ukraine’s SBU security service announced Wednesday that it had apprehended a Chinese father and his son for allegedly attempting to smuggle classified missile documentation out of Ukraine. The pair was captured in Kiev while reportedly trying to send information about the Ukrainian RK-360MC Neptune missile system back to China.
According to the SBU, the son was a 24-year-old former technical university student in Kiev. His father, who resides in China, had traveled to Ukraine to oversee the espionage operation personally. The two now face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of espionage-related charges.
Ukraine used the RK-360MC Neptune missile system to destroy the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, the Moskva, early in the war. The more than three-year conflict has increasingly pulled in geopolitical actors, including China, which Kiev and its Western allies accuse of enabling Russia’s military through trade and technology transfers.
Ukraine has previously claimed that dozens of Chinese nationals have joined Russia’s military ranks. In April, Ukrainian forces reportedly detained two such recruits and said they had intelligence on many more. China rejected the claims as “groundless and irresponsible.”
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership just prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, they have increased cooperation across political, military, and economic sectors, further escalating concerns among Western nations about Beijing’s role in global conflicts.
Russia has also strengthened its relations with North Korea, with around 10,000 troops from the East Asian country helping to beat back a Ukrainian counter-invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claiming up to 30,000 more North Koreans are on their way to assist Russian summer offensives.
Image via the Ukrainian Presidency.
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