Kyiv claimed detained Chinese citizens tried to smuggle classified documents on Ukrainian missile system out of country
Beijing on Thursday said it was “still verifying” information regarding claims made by Ukraine that it arrested two Chinese citizens over suspected smuggling of classified documents.
“If this is concerned with Chinese citizens, then the lawful rights of Chinese citizens need to be safeguarded,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a live-streamed news conference in Beijing.
Kyiv on Wednesday claimed that it detained two Chinese citizens suspected of trying to smuggle classified documents on a Ukrainian missile system out of the country.
The Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said that the two Chinese nationals were detained in the capital Kyiv, and are suspected of trying to smuggle classified documents on the RK-360MC Neptune missile system.
It said the system was used by Ukraine to sink the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, once the flagship of Moscow's Black Sea fleet, back in 2022.
According to its investigation, one of those detained is a former student who was expelled from one of the technical universities in the Ukrainian capital in 2023.
“Another defendant is his father, who permanently resided in China but periodically visited Ukraine to personally coordinate his son's spy work,” the statement further said.
The statement claimed the former student tried to recruit a Ukrainian citizen involved in weapons development, also indicating that “phones with evidence” were seized from the two during searches.
“The defendants face up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property,” the SBU added.
