Kyiv, Ukraine
Cnn
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said two Chinese nationals in the Russian army had been taken prisoner in eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that the Ukrainian forces that fight in the Donetsk region had obtained the documents from Chinese nationals, bank cards and personal data.
“We have information that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupant’s units than two. We now discover all the facts,” said Zelensky in an article on Telegram. “I asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to immediately contact Beijing and discover how China will react to this.”
“The involvement by Russia of China in this war in Europe, directly or indirectly, is a clear signal that Putin will do anything, except to put an end to the war. He seeks means to continue to fight,” said Zelensky.
It is not clear if the Chinese nationals that Ukraine say they are captured are Chinese soldiers or volunteers.
The Ukrainian president also called on his allies in the United States and Europe to protest.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday that kyiv called for loading Beijing in Ukraine “to condemn this fact and demand an explanation.”
“We hope that after this situation, the Americans will speak more with the Ukrainians and then with the Russians. And we hope that the Chinese part will also respond,” Zelensky said on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference.
“It is another country that militarily supports the invasion of Ukraine Russia on the side of Russia. This is another after Iran and the North Korean army,” he added.
CNN has contacted the Chinese Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Russia for Comments.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a position of social media in January 2024 that its citizens should remain far from the conflict zones, urging them to “avoid participation in conflicts in any form – in particular to participate in military actions of any party”.
China has helped Russia accelerate its industrial defense base as it continues its war against Ukraine, said last year CNN, senior officials from the Biden administration.
The support that China has provided includes significant amounts of machine tools, drone and turbojet engines and technology for cruise missiles, microelectronics and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to make weapons, officials said in April 2024.
Meanwhile, Russia has also considerably strengthened its military relationship with North Korea in the past year, the two signing a mutual defense agreement and Pyongyang sending its troops to fight for Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.
In January, the Ukrainian forces operating in the Kursk region in Russia captured two North Korean soldiers.
Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours have killed at least three people and have injured 19 others, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia has conducted attacks on the Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson, said local officials.
Elsewhere on the fronts, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that it had taken over one of the last villages held by Ukraine in the Kursk region, months after the launch of a surprise cross -border foray.
“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat Ukrainian training for the armed forces in the Kursk region. The units of the North Group of Forces released the colony of Guyevo in the Kursk region during offensive operations,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The US-based conflict was monitoring the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Monday that Russian forces had recently advanced in Kursk. The ISW card of the incursion shows that Ukrainian troops only remain in small parts of the Russian region.
Ukrainian troops have occupied part of the Kursk region since August 2024, although the Russian forces have since taken up a large part of the territory.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian regiment published a video on Tuesday showing strikes on the Belgorod region close to Russia, one day after Zelensky confirmed for the first time on Monday that his country troops were active in the region while they were trying to protect Ukrainian cities near the border.
The 225th separate assault regiment of Ukraine said that the video shows that its forces destroying two bridges in Belgorod, in the villages of Grafovka and Nadezhevka. CNN checked that these are the locations indicated in the video.
“Then, the drone operations and the cleaning of the soil followed,” said the regiment in a telegram post, confirming their presence on the land in Russian territory.
The Ukrainian forces began limited attacks in the northwest region of Belgorod in Russia on March 18, according to the ISW, in areas just in front of Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry previously declared that it had defeated the Ukrainian troops attacking Belgorod.
Anna Chernova de CNN has contributed to this report.