China secretly supplied 46 tons of drone-production materials to Russia

Source: Politico

The Chinese state-owned Jilin Chemical Fiber Group shipped 46 tons of drone-related chemicals to Russia, disguising the cargo as civilian goods, according to shipping documents reviewed by Politico and The Telegraph.

According to the journalists, the documents named Alabuga-Volokno — a subsidiary of Rosatom — as the recipient of the polyacrylonitrile, a polymer used to produce carbon fiber. Drones based on Iran’s Shahed design have also been assembled since 2023 in Tatarstan’s Alabuga special economic zone.

The documents, dated 2026, list the shipment under a customs code reserved for civilian-use synthetic fiber exports.

David Albright, head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said carbon fiber reinforces a drone’s wings and internal components, including the engine and fuel tank. He estimated the shipment of polyacrylonitrile could produce at least 1,300 drones.

Chinese-made components have long turned up in Russian drones used to strike Ukraine, but the documents mark the first confirmed evidence of direct material supplies from China, Politico said.

The Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center (USCC) obtained the documents detailing chemical shipments from China. The Ukrainian government and a special U.S. House of Representatives committee on China confirmed the documents’ authenticity, Politico’s sources said. The documents were also shared with the British government for review.

The U.S. State Department and the CIA did not comment on the reporting. The U.K. Foreign Ministry did not dispute the information in the documents.

Donald Trump is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington on September 24. Journalists said Ukraine may step up pressure on the U.S. president to push Beijing to halt such deliveries going forward, citing new evidence of China’s support for Russia.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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China secretly supplied 46 tons of drone-production materials to Russia

Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center

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China secretly supplied 46 tons of drone-production materials to Russia

Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center

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