IStories Identified the Names of 51 Soldiers From China Who Passed Through the Russian Armed Forces Selection Point Over the Course of a Year
At least 51 Chinese citizens have passed through the Moscow recruitment center for contract military service. This follows from data on contract recruitment in Moscow from June 2023 to May 2024, obtained by IStories. 31 soldiers from China applied in 2023, and another 20 in 2024.
Those wishing to sign a contract from China came to enlist regularly every month. The largest number of Chinese citizens wanted to sign a contract in July 2023: at that time, 8 people visited the Moscow recruitment center at once. Sometimes Chinese volunteers came to sign contracts with the Russian army in pairs. At least one such pair — 38-year-old Minlyan Wang and 43-year-old Daocheng Li — arrived in Russia on the same flight, IStories confirmed after analyzing border service data. Just two days later, they went to the recruitment center together.
Most Chinese citizens arrived in Moscow shortly before applying to the recruitment center for contract service, according to our data. For instance, 24-year-old Yuanchun Jiang arrived in Russia on August 22, 2023, and went to sign a contract the same day. At least seven others came to enlist the day after arriving in Russia from China. At least four Chinese volunteers flew back to China after visiting the recruitment center.
What is happening with the Chinese at the front
The youngest of the Chinese contract soldiers on our list is 20 years old, the oldest is 51. At least one of them has already died in the war in Ukraine. Thus, 38-year-old Rui Zhao signed a contract with the Russian army at the end of September 2023, and already in December 2023, according to data from Ukrainian media, was killed in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
There are also reports of wounded soldiers from China. Another Chinese volunteer from our list — 38-year-old Lin Pan — appeared in a video published by the pro-war Telegram channel Krupnokaliberny Perepolokh [“Large-Caliber Commotion”]. The video claims that Lin Pan is a former member of the Chinese military police who received the Cross of St. George’s for evacuating fellow Russian soldiers attacked by a drone near Bakhmut. He was wounded, hospitalized, and returned to the front. The authors of the video call Pan “our Russian guy of Chinese origin” and note that he does not know a single word in the language of the country he is fighting for, except for “I am Russian” and “brother.”
Another fighter from the IStories list, Wei Duan, ended up in the patient database of medical institutions of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, reported RFE/RL. Wei, who had already returned to his homeland at that point, confirmed in correspondence with journalists that he is a citizen of the PRC and participated in the war in Ukraine.
Several other Chinese citizens who served under contract in the Russian army may also have already returned to their homeland (contracts with foreigners are signed for one year). 49-year-old Hongshao Liu came to the recruitment center in Moscow in July 2023, and already in November 2024 posted a photo on social media with the geotag Manyang — this is an urban district in China. The photo shows a child going to school with a camouflage backpack, which has a patch with the Russian tricolor attached to it. Under the photo, it is written in Russian: “On the way to school.”
The fate of most Chinese citizens who signed a contract with the Russian army is unknown to us.
What is happening with the Chinese at the front
The youngest of the Chinese contract soldiers on our list is 20 years old, the oldest is 51. At least one of them has already died in the war in Ukraine. Thus, 38-year-old Rui Zhao signed a contract with the Russian army at the end of September 2023, and already in December 2023, according to data from Ukrainian media, was killed in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
There are also reports of wounded soldiers from China. Another Chinese volunteer from our list — 38-year-old Lin Pan — appeared in a video published by the pro-war Telegram channel Krupnokaliberny Perepolokh [“Large-Caliber Commotion”]. The video claims that Lin Pan is a former member of the Chinese military police who received the Cross of St. George’s for evacuating fellow Russian soldiers attacked by a drone near Bakhmut. He was wounded, hospitalized, and returned to the front. The authors of the video call Pan “our Russian guy of Chinese origin” and note that he does not know a single word in the language of the country he is fighting for, except for “I am Russian” and “brother.”
Another fighter from the IStories list, Wei Duan, ended up in the patient database of medical institutions of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, reported RFE/RL. Wei, who had already returned to his homeland at that point, confirmed in correspondence with journalists that he is a citizen of the PRC and participated in the war in Ukraine.
Several other Chinese citizens who served under contract in the Russian army may also have already returned to their homeland (contracts with foreigners are signed for one year). 49-year-old Hongshao Liu came to the recruitment center in Moscow in July 2023, and already in November 2024 posted a photo on social media with the geotag Manyang — this is an urban district in China. The photo shows a child going to school with a camouflage backpack, which has a patch with the Russian tricolor attached to it. Under the photo, it is written in Russian: “On the way to school.”
The fate of most Chinese citizens who signed a contract with the Russian army is unknown to us.
What Chinese volunteers say about serving in the Russian army
41-year-old Jianwei Li, who flew to Russia and applied to the contract recruitment center in December 2023, spoke in detail on his social media about his service in the Russian army. According to him, an average of 8–10 hours can pass from the moment a contract soldier appears on the battlefield to his death. He complained about “weak” military equipment and weapons, as well as the language barrier, which prevents him from communicating with Russian colleagues and talking on the radio with the command. “In the two weeks that I’ve been here, we’ve only advanced 100 meters. We lost dozens of people and didn’t pick them up [didn’t evacuate the bodies],” he says.
According to Jianwei Li, during one of the battles, one foreign mercenary and two Russian soldiers fled out of fear, and a Cuban feigned illness to avoid participating in the fighting. “That’s why you can’t trust anyone on the battlefield, including your colleagues. In China, we don’t have such problems. Our Chinese military are like brothers — they can even sacrifice their lives to save you. But outside of China, you can only rely on yourself,” he says.
Another soldier from our list, 38-year-old Ruici Sun, also complained on social media about the conditions in the Russian army. He arrived in Russia in September 2023 and went to sign a contract the next day. “There is no medical care here. Nobody cares. The pain is killing me,” he said in a video published in January 2024. According to him, the doctor, after examination, did not provide proper treatment. “I contacted the Chinese embassy in Russia. They said it was my personal problem,” Ruici Sun claims.
Judging by the publications on the Chinese internet, he commanded a group of soldiers from Nepal, up to a platoon in size. One of the Nepalese mercenaries posted a joint photo with Ruici Sun on his TikTok account with the corresponding captions: “Nepali the soldier” and “chains commander” [note — spelling preserved]. From the video discovered by IStories, it follows that in March 2024, Ruici Sun returned to China.
What the authorities say
On April 9, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that at least 155 Chinese citizens are fighting in the Russian army. According to Ukraine, they signed contracts in the second half of 2024, as well as in 2023. “We believe there are many more,” he added.
The Chinese authorities reacted to Zelenskyy’s statement and stated that the country did not send its military personnel to Russia. “The Chinese government has always demanded that its citizens stay away from the armed conflict zone [in Ukraine], avoid involvement in any form, in particular refrain from participating in military operations of either side,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.
The fact that Chinese citizens are participating in the war on the side of Russia does not necessarily mean that official Beijing supports Moscow by military means, believes Temur Umarov, an expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, who specializes in China’s relations with Russia, among other things:
“Considering the small number of Chinese citizens who ended up among the volunteers on the Russian side in the war in Ukraine, I don’t think the Communist Party and the leadership of the PRC were aware of their arrival and participation in the war,” says Umarov. “These citizens could very well have voluntarily left and signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense to earn money or somehow resolve their legal issues. There is no exit ban in China. Any PRC citizen who has the means and no debts can leave their country, and there is no difficulty in coming to Russia. I think this is indeed a voluntary decision of those citizens.”
Does China prohibit its citizens from serving in the army of another country?Although there is no separate article in the Criminal Code of the PRC called “Mercenarism,” a set of articles concerning state security, collusion with foreign forces, rebellion, terrorism, and desertion effectively prohibits Chinese citizens from participating in foreign armed formations or conflicts and provides for punishment up to life imprisonment.
On April 8, in the Donetsk Oblast, the Armed Forces of Ukraine captured two Chinese citizens who were fighting as part of the Russian army. Zelenskyy named them — Wang Guangjun and Chang Renbo. On April 9, the Security Service of Ukraine interrogated them. According to both foreigners, they were captured during their first combat mission. One of them was recruited by a representative of Russia in China, and in February 2025, he arrived in Moscow and signed a contract, the SBU claims. The second arrived in Russia in December 2024 “for tourism purposes,” and while already in the country, he responded to an online advertisement for a contract with a payment of 2 million rubles.