Ukraine Says Chinese Satellites May Be Aiding Russian Attacks
Russia has waged a relentless campaign of drone and missile strikes in recent months against Ukraine’s energy network, leaving millions to cope with power cuts amid freezing winter temperatures.
Russia may be getting help from Chinese satellite imaging data to carry out strikes on energy targets in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“There have been correlations between Chinese satellite imaging of Ukrainian territory and Russian strikes on the corresponding energy infrastructure facilities,” Zelenskiy said Wednesday in a post on social media after meeting with the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service Oleh Ivashchenko. “We are recording increased ties between Russia and entities in China that may be providing space-based intelligence data.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine plans to raise the issue with allies, saying it undermined diplomacy aimed at bringing an end to Russia’s almost four-year war. It’s unclear whether Zelenskiy was alleging that China’s government is aware of the involvement of companies from the country providing space data.
Russia has waged a relentless campaign of drone and missile strikes in recent months against Ukraine’s energy network, leaving millions to cope with power cuts amid freezing winter temperatures.
Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya held political consultations in Beijing with China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin last week that included discussions about the war.
The US, under then President Joe Biden, in 2023 imposed sanctions on a Chinese company accused of providing satellite imagery over locations in Ukraine to a Russian technology business. It confronted China’s government on the issue of companies supporting Russia’s war, people familiar with the issue said at the time.
Russia struck a thermal power plant in Ukraine’s Kharkiv on Wednesday, causing a “significant drop” in electricity supply that affected the city’s heating and transport systems, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. One person was killed and several injured in the attack, he said.
Oil and gas infrastructure operated by Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz have been attacked for the second day in a row, the state-run group’s Chief Executive Officer Sergii Koretskyi said in a Facebook post, adding that almost 100 shaheed-type drones have been used over the past two days against its facilities.
