Russia has significantly expanded its drone capabilities for the war against Ukraine thanks to Chinese companies that officially deny cooperating with Moscow.

Source: Bloomberg in an investigation after reviewing internal documents of the Russian company Aero-HIT and its correspondence with Russian government officials

Details: Based in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, little-known Aero-HIT began cooperating with Chinese firms in 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to set up large-scale drone production for frontline combat.

The company has claimed that it will reach the capacity to manufacture up to 10,000 drones per month in 2025 and is also planning to expand into more advanced models.

Documents obtained by Bloomberg reveal that Aero-HIT has been collaborating with engineers from the Chinese company Autel since early 2023 to localise production of the Autel EVO Max 4T drone in Russia. 

The backbone of Aero-HIT’s arsenal is the Veles, a first-person view (FPV) drone based on the Chinese Autel EVO Max 4T, which was originally designed for civilian use. Its resilience to electronic warfare systems has made it effective on the battlefield. 

Each drone is priced at RUB 650,000 (about US$8,317), VAT included.

In June 2024, Aero-HIT was sanctioned by the US Treasury after its drones were found to "have been used by Russian forces based in Kherson against Ukrainian targets".

To circumvent sanctions, Russia uses intermediaries that operate in other sectors, such as agribusiness, logistics and catering.

Although China officially claims that it does not supply weapons to either side in the war, the documents suggest involvement by engineers from the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), a Chinese university closely linked to the Chinese military and under US sanctions.

In 2024, Russian ruler Vladimir Putin visited HIT during a trip to China. Following the visit, cooperation intensified between HIT, the Khabarovsk airport and the company Komax, which operates the airport and is owned by Konstantin Basyuk, a former KGB operative and Russian senator for the occupied part of Kherson Oblast.

By late 2023, the Khabarovsk plant was already producing 200-300 drones per month. In March 2024, Russia’s Ministry of Defence planned to order 5,000 Veles FPV drones.

Background: On 27 May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists that China had halted drone sales to Kyiv and other European countries, while continuing to supply them to Russia.

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