Chinese Fighters Captured in Ukraine Reveal Brutal Abuse by Russian Forces and Growing Mercenary Crisis
“Hell Has No Nationality”: The Grim Reality Behind China's Shadow Soldiers in the Russia-Ukraine War
From Mercenary to Prisoner: A War Without Borders Becomes a War Without Allegiance
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking from Kyiv today, declared that two Chinese nationals fighting alongside Russian forces had been captured in combat in Donetsk. “Chinese are fighting on Ukrainian territory,” he warned. “This is an urgent matter that should be discussed with partner countries.”
The statement not only confirmed suspicions of foreign participation in the conflict — it shattered the pretense of plausible deniability. Chinese soldiers, once shadows on the battlefield, are now prisoners of war. The geopolitical ripples are immediate. The moral and human questions — much deeper.
Behind Zelensky’s sober delivery lies a darker truth: the stories of men like "Macaron," "Zhao Rui," and the now-deceased “Prison Warden,” who came to Ukraine’s charred plains seeking money, adventure, or redemption, and instead found disillusionment, abuse, and in many cases, death.
Recruitment by Ruin: The Lure of Rubles and Propaganda
While no official numbers have been confirmed by either Beijing or Moscow, estimates from combatants suggest hundreds to thousands of Chinese mercenaries have joined Russian ranks since late 2023.
Their motivations vary — financial desperation, nationalist idealism, escapism, or mere curiosity about warfare. One mercenary, a former PLA soldier from Shandong using the alias Macaron, joined Russia’s Storm-Z assault unit after entering Moscow on a tourist visa. He claimed the pay was ¥15,000/month ($2,048) — “barely enough to survive” in Russia’s war economy.
He was issued a machine gun from 1948, forced to buy his own body armor (later confiscated), and imprisoned in a pit for 21 days after complaining to Russian authorities. “Real war is like hell,” he recounted in a recent interview with reknown journlist Chai Jing. “It’s nothing like in our patriotic movies. You shoot civilians. You get shot. And nobody cares.”
Betrayed at Gunpoint: Racism, Abuse, and Collapse of Command
Macaron’s testimony, echoed by multiple sources, paints a picture of lawlessness behind Russian lines. Chinese fighters — many of whom lack fluency in Russian — are treated as expendable labor. They are over-tasked, under-armed, and often relegated to front-line cannon fodder roles.
A livestream from January captured a Chinese fighter nicknamed “Pai Zong” on the verge of mental collapse. “The Russians bully me every day,” he told a fellow fighter. “They lie around playing on their phones while I fetch water and chop firewood like a slave. I’ll take a grenade and blow them up. You’ll see it in the news — one Chinese man killing ten Russian pigs.”
His outburst wasn’t isolated. Numerous Chinese mercenaries describe similar experiences of psychological abuse, physical beatings, and ethnic discrimination — sometimes even friendly fire. “If you get injured, they won’t help you,” Macaron said. “If you're lucky, a Ukrainian drone kills you just fast enough (before any suffering).”
“No Exit Clause”: When the War Owns You
Even those seeking to leave find themselves trapped. Contracts are arbitrarily extended. Russian units often refuse to let mercenaries go — especially as casualties soar. The story of “Prison Warden,” a Chinese commander promoted within the Storm-Z battalion, ended in death after he was denied release despite completing his service term. His body was never recovered.
Others, like Liu Hongwei and Liu Jie, died within 24 hours of reaching the front lines. One stepped on a mine; the other was torn apart by dual FPV drones. Their deaths, though sudden, were not unique. Macaron estimates the average survival time on the front is “about three days.”
Livestreams from the Abyss: The War-Tainment Industry
Paradoxically, many Chinese mercenaries are simultaneously combatants and content creators. They stream from trenches, sell merchandise between mortar blasts, and post “motivational” videos that mask their desperation.
Sun Ruiqi, known for his viral “use me and you (Russia) will win” battle cry, later pleaded online for medical evacuation after falling ill. He begged the Chinese consulate for help. None came. Eventually, he returned to China — a rare survivor.
In contrast, Zhao Rui — dubbed the “Emperor Qianlong of Mercenaries” — was killed by a Ukrainian drone strike in November 2023. His death marked the first confirmed fatality of a Chinese national in the war, turning him into both martyr and warning.
Ukraine’s Silent Few: The Other Side of the Border
While most Chinese nationals fight for Russia, a smaller, more fragmented contingent has joined the Ukrainian side. These include individuals like Zeng Shengguang, a 25-year-old from Taiwan who joined the Ukrainian International Legion after resisting family pleas. He died in Luhansk after bleeding out from multiple injuries.
Others — such as Lee Cheng-ling, a former French Foreign Legionnaire — faced internal discrimination within Ukrainian units, often banned from posting videos or given menial tasks. Unlike Russian recruitment, Ukraine's foreign legion requires prior military experience and language skills, reducing the volume but not the danger for Chinese-speaking volunteers.
Collateral Lives in a Proxy Inferno
The presence of Chinese fighters (We used "Chinese" here because Taiwan is still officially under the name Republic of China while the Chinese mainland under People's Republic of China) on both sides of the Ukraine war is more than an anomaly — it’s a cipher. It reveals how modern warfare now recruits from the economically desperate and ideologically confused. It also underlines how deeply the Russia-Ukraine conflict has become a global proxy theater, pulling in mercenaries from Africa, South Asia, Europe — and increasingly, China.
But these soldiers — whether ideological volunteers or paid guns — are not simply geopolitical chess pieces. They are men like Zhao Rui, frozen to death in a trench. Like Macaron, who carries a grenade not to throw at enemies, but to take his own life if captured. Like Liu Jie, blown to pieces before learning the layout of his battlefield.
One analyst described the trend succinctly: “This isn’t just a war between states anymore. It’s a war economy — a vacuum that consumes the disposable.”
Diplomatic Silence and the Weight of the Unclaimed
Zelensky’s call for diplomatic clarity has yet to elicit a formal response from Beijing. China maintains its position of neutrality, denying state involvement and discouraging citizens from joining foreign armed forces. Yet evidence mounts of both unofficial recruitment and material support to Russia — including machine tools, electronics, and dual-use technology.
The Chinese government, unlike India which successfully negotiated the release of its captured fighters, has offered little aid to its trapped nationals. They remain stateless in war, unclaimed in death.
“In War There Are No Heroes”
The capture of two Chinese fighters in Donetsk may be diplomatically awkward. But for those embedded in the trenches, it’s merely a headline in a war of many horrors. “In war, there are no heroes,” said Macaron, moments before being wounded during an evacuation attempt. “Everyone becomes a villain. Because you have to kill.”
Their stories — livestreamed, buried, anonymized — won’t fit neatly into patriotic narratives or policy briefings. But they are real. And growing.
As the war grinds on and foreign mercenaries continue to arrive — driven by poverty, delusion, or desperation — one thing is clear: this battlefield has become a mirror, reflecting not just the politics of nations, but the fractures of modern man.
In this war, even the survivors may not go home whole.