Ukrainian law enforcement has exposed and detained Chinese citizens who attempted to transfer classified documents on Ukraine’s Neptune missile system to Chinese intelligence services.
This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, according to Ukrinform.
On June 26, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China was formally charged with espionage.
The suspect is a 24-year-old former student of a Kyiv university who remained in Ukraine after being expelled in 2023 due to poor academic performance. He attempted to recruit a Ukrainian citizen with access to classified weapons development for Ukraine’s defense forces.
The investigation — conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) — found that the Chinese national had collected and planned to transfer classified documentation about the Neptune missile system to his father, who maintains close ties with Chinese security services and the General Staff of China.
The Neptune is a unique Ukrainian missile system designed to destroy enemy warships, including amphibious assault vessels. A Neptune missile was used to sink the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship, the cruiser Moskva.
The suspect was detained while attempting to pass the information, and is now in pre-trial custody.
The second suspect, his father, resides permanently in China but regularly visited Ukraine to personally oversee his son’s espionage activities. He reentered Ukraine on July 7 and visited the Chinese embassy in Kyiv the next day. On July 9, he was detained as part of the ongoing investigation. The prosecutor’s office plans to charge him with espionage and will request his pre-trial detention in court.
As previously reported, Ukraine’s military counterintelligence recently detained a Russian operative who was helping coordinate a missile strike on the Neptune missile complexes, which are keeping Russia’s Black Sea coast under threat.
