Captured Chinese soldiers reveal the hell of the battlefield in Ukraine: "They don't treat us like people, we're just slaves"
Chinese soldiers fighting on Russia's side in Ukraine are increasingly sharing shocking testimonies on social media: they claim that the Russians are treating them like expendable goods, sending them on suicide missions and not caring whether they are killed or wounded.
Captured Chinese Soldiers Reveal the Hell of the Ukraine War: "We Are Not Treated as Humans, We Are Just Goods"
Chinese soldiers fighting on the side of Russia in Ukraine are increasingly sharing shocking testimonies on social media: they claim that the Russians treat them like expendable goods, send them on suicide missions and do not care if they are killed or wounded.
"To the Russians, we are not human beings. We fight in suicide squads and they do not care if we die," said Chinese soldier Zhou Ziqiang, who is fighting on the side of Russia in Ukraine, according to the British newspaper The Times. Like many other Chinese soldiers, Zhou shared his story on the Chinese social network Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Russians do not see us as human beings. We are included in suicide squads and they don't care if we die or get wounded," said the soldier.
The Times reports that Zhou is not alone — more and more Chinese soldiers are sharing their experiences on social media. It is not known how long Zhou has been in the Russian army or exactly where he is fighting.
It is believed that Chinese soldiers receive around 2,000 British pounds a month from Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has accurate data on more than 150 Chinese soldiers fighting on the side of Russia. "We know that the real number is higher," he wrote on the X platform.
Ukrainian forces clashed with six of them in the Donetsk region, capturing two. However, Zhou Ziqiang, who is reported by The Times, is not among them. Zelensky posted a video on X Network in which the captured soldiers are identified as Zhang Zhenpo and Wang Guangjun.
One of the captured soldiers is 33 years old and had documents on him, including a Chinese passport. According to The Times, he is originally from Henan province, in eastern China. In addition to the passport, a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense was found on him, which obliges him to serve in the Russian army for one year.
Other documents show that the Chinese soldier landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on February 8, after applying for a visa in China two weeks earlier. He was granted a 16-day visa in Russia, but it is not known exactly when he signed the contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“At least one” of the captured soldiers also complained about the mistreatment of Russian soldiers in the trenches. “He came to our positions at night and surrendered. The Russians played with him and didn’t even give him food,” a military source told The Times.
“This is another country that is militarily supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Zelensky said. However, Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Combating Disinformation, notes that the captured Chinese soldiers are mercenaries. The Times adds that there is no evidence that the Chinese government officially ordered the soldiers to fight on Russia’s side.
Western officials confirm this. One of them compared the situation to British citizens fighting on the side of Ukraine - by their own choice and without the support of the government.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government would consult intelligence and defense agencies to "get to the full truth about what is really happening."
China, which has never condemned the Russian invasion and is one of Russia's main political allies, said it was investigating the case together with Ukrainian authorities. "Let me emphasize that the Chinese government always urges its citizens to stay away from areas of armed conflict," a Chinese diplomat said at a press conference on Wednesday.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the United States was "concerned about the situation."
"It is concerning when North Korea participates in the war on the side of Russia. It is also concerning that Ukraine has captured Chinese soldiers. We are aware of reports that two Chinese citizens, who are fighting on the side of Russia, have been captured by Ukraine," Bruce said at a press conference.
CONCLUSION
The Russian authorities are using all available means to increase the number of soldiers on the battlefield, including foreign mercenaries. In this case, the foreign mercenaries come from China, a country that has been pro-Russian since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese officials have repeatedly emphasized their neutral stance towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Given China’s undisputed assistance in refusing to impose sanctions on Russia and supplying dual-use goods, many analysts have characterized China’s stance towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “neutrality on the side of Russia.”
Although it will be interesting to follow the outcome of the situation and what will happen to the two Chinese citizens captured by Ukrainian forces, the fact is that individuals and groups are active in the Western Balkans countries who are working to attract volunteers to go to war in Ukraine, on the side of Russia. We have also had cases of volunteers from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska) dying on the Ukrainian battlefield. Unfortunately, although most Western Balkan countries prohibit fighting on foreign battlefields for the interests of foreign states, there have been no cases of adequate prosecution of citizens of Western Balkan countries for participation in the war in Ukraine.