European Union intelligence confirmed that China trained hundreds of Russian soldiers at several military installations on Chinese territory before they fought in Ukraine.
“We have also now verified reports that the Chinese military has been training Russian military personnel to fight in Ukraine,” EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said Monday after a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg. “We are carefully assessing the implications.”
Kallas did not provide further details about the reported training or identify the sources behind the assessment.
Her remarks follow a Reuters report in May that said Chinese military personnel had secretly trained about 200 Russian troops in China in late 2025, with some later deployed to Ukraine. According to that report, the training focused largely on drone warfare and was outlined in an agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing in July 2025.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance is “not naive” about China’s reported support for Russia’s war effort.
“We are not naive. We monitor everything very precisely. I cannot tell you more at this point, or at least not in this open press conference, but you can be assured that we monitor every [part],” he said in a press conference with NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
Rutte also reiterated NATO’s broader assessment that Russia continues to receive support from several countries.
“We know that Russia is not alone, that they receive vital support from North Korea, from China, from Iran,” he said. “The four countries work closely together, and there are mutual arrangements—perhaps not always legally written down on paper—regarding who does what for the other and what they receive in return.”
China rejected the allegations. “The relevant claims have no factual basis. It is pure slander and smearing,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a regular briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
China has repeatedly said it takes an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
