Thread by @revishvilig

Hugely important reporting by Reuters here:

China's armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine. 1/10

The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on July 2, 2025. 2/10

The agreement said about 200 Russian troops would be trained at military facilities in locations including Beijing and the eastern city of Nanjing. The sources said around this number subsequently trained in China. 3/10

The agreement also said hundreds of Chinese troops would undergo training at military facilities in Russia. 4/10

By training Russian military personnel at an operational and tactical level who then participate in Ukraine, China is far more directly involved in the war on the European continent than previously known, one intelligence official said. 5/10

According to the training agreement reviewed, the Russians would be schooled in disciplines such as drones, electronic warfare, army aviation and armoured infantry. 6/10

Visits by Chinese troops to Russia for training have been taking place since at least 2024, but Russian personnel training in China is new, two of the intelligence agencies said. 7/10

While Russia has extensive combat experience in Ukraine, China's vast drone industry offers technological know-how and advanced training methods such as flight simulators. 8/10

A significant number of Russian personnel who received training in China were ranking military instructors in a position to pass knowledge down the chain of command, the two intelligence agencies said. 9/10

One of the agencies said they had confirmed the identities of a handful of Russian military personnel who trained in China and had since been directly involved in combat operations with drones in Ukraine's occupied Crimea and Zaporizhzhia regions. 10/10

source: reuters.com/business/energ…

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