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Chinese state firm supplied key material for Russian attack drones, documents show

07 September 2026 22:52 (UTC +04:00)

A Chinese state-owned company supplied a Russian firm involved in the production of long-range attack drones with a key material used to manufacture carbon fiber, according to internal Russian shipping documents obtained by Politico, APA reports.

The shipment could provide enough carbon fiber for as many as 1,300 kamikaze drones, according to an expert who reviewed the records.

The documents show that China's state-owned Jilin Chemical Fiber Group shipped up to 46 tons of polyacrylonitrile, or PAN, precursor to Alabuga-Volokno, a subsidiary of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, earlier this year.
Alabuga-Volokno operates in Russia's Tatarstan region and supplies high-specification carbon fiber used in the mass production of Geran attack drones, which are based on Iran's Shahed design.

The shipping documents listed the material under a customs code used for civilian synthetic fibers. David Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said the correct code would have identified the shipment as a dual-use product.

Kerri Bitsoff, a former U.S. Treasury official who worked on sanctions targeting Russian weapons procurement networks, told Politico that the use of the civilian customs code pointed to an attempt to conceal a sensitive shipment.

Albright estimated that the amount of PAN precursor shipped by Jilin could produce enough carbon fiber for as many as 1,300 attack drones. The material is used to strengthen drone airframes, including their wings and internal structures.

The Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, a Kyiv-based think tank that obtained the documents, said it had tracked at least eight tenders involving shipments of PAN precursor from Jilin Chemical Fiber Group to Alabuga-Volokno since 2022.

The center shared the documents with the U.S. and U.K. governments. The U.S. House Select Committee on China reviewed the records and determined they were legitimate, while a Ukrainian government official said Kyiv had also confirmed their authenticity.
Alabuga-Volokno and its parent company have been subject to Western sanctions since 2023, while Jilin Chemical Fiber Group is not currently under Western sanctions.

Jilin did not respond to Politico's requests for comment. Rosatom said it and its subsidiaries operate "in full compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements."

China's embassy in Washington rejected allegations that Beijing supports Russia's military drone program, saying China has "never provided lethal weapons to any party to the conflict" and strictly controls exports of dual-use goods.