Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky releases new video of captured Chinese soldiers and says Beijing turning blind eye

Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said he is “not convinced yet” the Chinese personnel identified as fighting on behalf of Russia against Ukraine are more than mercenaries or volunteers.

“There’s an axiom in the military, the first report is always wrong,” Kellogg said during an appearance yesterday at Georgetown University.

“And this is one of those let’s sit back and see how this plays out, because it could be volunteers,” he said.

Mr Kellogg noted that Ukraine also has volunteers from other countries, including the United States, fighting on its behalf.

He added that the early reports of Chinese personnel are not on par with North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to the frontlines.

A new video shared by Volodymyr Zelensky shows part of the interrogation of the two captured Chinese soldiers, after Beijing called his claims about them “baseless”.

In the video the soldiers reveal details of their experience fighting in Ukraine alongside Russia, and one of their Chinese passports is also shown to the camera.

The soldier whose passport is shown said that this war was his first deployment and he had never held a weapon before.

Another soldier, who identified himself as Wang Guangjun, said that when he surrended in the fighting, the Russian soldiers “dropped some kind of gas on them”.

“He was in the shelter, inhaling the gas. He thought he was going to die but a Ukrainian serviceman rushed in and dragged him out by the scruff, and after that he lost consciousness,” a translator interrogating him said.

Ukrainian intelligence has information there are about 155 Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian military against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Mr Zelensky claimed that Russia was recruiting Chinese citizens via social media and that Chinese officials were aware of that.

He added that Ukraine was trying to assess whether the recruits were receiving instructions from Beijing.

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said earlier China was verifying the situation with Ukraine, adding that its government had always required its citizens to avoid areas of armed conflict and “especially to avoid participating in the military operations of any party”.