Tim, a 43-year-old Chinese national, was delivering aid on the outskirts of Kyiv when he heard a missile fly overhead on 8 July 2024. Moments later, he learned that the Okhmatdyt children's hospital had been hit in one of the deadliest days of the war. Along with a British friend, he rushed to help with recovery efforts. 'Seeing the severed limbs, some of them belonging to children, I started crying,' said the father of two. 'I decided to join the army.'
More than a year later, Tim is in southern Ukraine, engineering drones for the military's ground force. He is one of a small number of Chinese people who have defied their government and mainstream public opinion to risk their lives fighting against Russia, Beijing's most important geopolitical partner. Chinese volunteers in Ukraine estimate that at most a few dozen people from mainland China are serving in the army.
Tim arrived in Ukraine in July 2023 after watching the war with concern from China. He applied for a business visa and embarked on a long journey west. 'I just wanted to go to Ukraine as a volunteer – to see a country suffering through hardship and deliver the donations that many of my close friends had given me,' he said. Like many Chinese volunteers, Tim is motivated by sympathy for Ukraine and despair at the direction of his own country.
Foreigners can serve in regular Ukrainian army units or one of two international legions. A Ukrainian military official said in August that there were about 8,000 foreigners in the land forces, with many from South America drawn by salaries that can exceed $3,000 a month for the most dangerous missions. The basic income is closer to $500 a month.
China officially claims neutrality in the conflict and has called for peace, but President Xi Jinping has stood by Vladimir Putin throughout the war. Western analysts believe it would be very difficult for Moscow to continue fighting without China's economic support.
