Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that two Chinese nationals — a father and a son — had been detained and accused of attempting to illegally transfer classified documents on a key Ukrainian missile system to Beijing.
According to a statement by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office, an investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) intelligence agency found the younger man, a 24-year-old who was expelled from a Ukrainian university in 2023 for academic failure, remained in Ukraine and attempted to recruit a Ukrainian national who worked on the development of the “Neptune” guided missile system.
“It was established that the foreigner was collecting and was supposed to transfer to his father, who has close ties with the security agencies and the General Staff of China, documentation about the Neptune missile system,” the government said in its statement, calling the missiles “a unique weapon of the Defense Forces of Ukraine” that was used in a hallmark attack on Russia’s navy in 2022.
Handout/Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) 
The SBU said the man’s father entered Ukraine earlier this week to “personally coordinate his son’s spy work.”
Neither of the men were identified.
According to the Prosecutor General’s office, the 24-year-old was detained while in the process of passing the information to his father, who was detained two days later. The father visited the Chinese Embassy in Kyiv a day before he was detained, the statement said.
The Chinese Embassy did not reply to CBS News’ request for comment on this story.
Handout/Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) 
The news comes a week after China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told the European Union’s top diplomat that Beijing did not want to see Ukraine win the war Russia launched with its full-scale 2022 invasion. Chinese officials have not confirmed that private statement by Wang during a visit to Brussels, reported by the South China Morning Post and other outlets.
Chinese officials have said repeatedly that the country’s stance on the Ukraine war is one of neutrality, but a U.S. Department of Defense report issued at the end of 2024 concluded that China has supported Russia in the war and sold Russia dual-use items that are crucial to Moscow’s military industry.
Under the Biden administration, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in early 2023 that the U.S. government was concerned Beijing was considering augmenting its support for Russia with “everything from ammunition to the weapons themselves.”
China has continued to deny taking sides in the war, but it has deepened its relationship with Moscow, both politically and militarily, significantly in recent years.
The Neptune system is a domestically designed Ukrainian cruise missile that has been in service with the Ukrainian navy since March 2021. The nearly-2,000 pound guided missiles are designed to target both ships and land targets, and it proved successful in the first months of the war when it was used to sink the Moskva guided missile cruiser, which was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Roy Madhur/REUTERS 
The missiles, which have a range of about 174 miles, are a vital weapon for Ukraine as it seeks to defend its Black Sea coastal area. It has also been deployed elsewhere and struck military targets including an airbase in Russia’s Kursk region last year, according to Ukraine’s military.
The original Neptune design was upgraded to extend its range and reduce Ukraine’s reliance on weapons provided by the U.S. and Europe.
The two Chinese men were to remain in custody during a pre-trial investigation. If found guilty of the charges, they could face prison sentences of up to 15 years.
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