{"id":9335,"date":"2026-09-08T15:33:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/?p=9335"},"modified":"2026-09-08T15:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:33:50","slug":"andrew-korybko-why-wont-china-cut-ukraine-off-from-drone-related-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/08\/andrew-korybko-why-wont-china-cut-ukraine-off-from-drone-related-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Korybko: Why Won\u2019t China Cut Ukraine Off From Drone-Related Sales?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why Won\u2019t China Cut Ukraine Off From Drone-Related Sales?<\/a><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Korybko<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep 07, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL) referenced the EU\u2019s summertime disbursement of the first \u20ac1 billion to Ukraine for drone procurement out of the \u20ac6 billion promised for this program in an article late last month about how \u201cUkraine\u2019s Drone War Exposes An Uncomfortable Reliance On China\u201d. They drew attention to the carve-out allowing Ukraine to purchase Chinese parts with these funds, ergo the politically incorrect observation back then that \u201cThe EU Plans To Pay China To Help Ukraine Kill Russians\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RFE\/RL reported that \u201cWhile Kyiv has cut back on the purchase of ready-made drones from China, components such as motors, lithium batteries, and fiberoptics are still in high demand.\u201d Additionally, \u201cIn the first six months of 2026, imports of Chinese parts had already reached around 76 percent of the total recorded for the previous year.\u201d They also cited a Ukrainian report which claimed that \u201c38 percent of the value of drone components imported by Ukraine in the first half of 2025 came from China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of their piece appears to be to instill a sense of urgency in Ukraine and the West alike to radically ramp up domestic drone production in order to reduce what one of their cited experts described as Ukraine\u2019s \u201chostile interdependence\u201d on China. They explained that \u201cBeijing remains Kyiv\u2019s largest trading partner, while Ukraine is a key supplier of agricultural goods to China.\u201d That\u2019s true, and it\u2019s one of the reasons why China won\u2019t cut Ukraine off from drone-related sales, but there\u2019s more to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Sino-Russo ties are better than at anytime in history, it was suspected as far back as early 2023 that \u201cChina Doesn\u2019t Want Anyone To Win In Ukraine\u201d, the reason being that a supposedly manageable forever war would indefinitely delay the full implementation of the US\u2019 planned \u201cPivot (back) to (East) Asia\u201d. Moreover, resource-rich Russia could become disproportionately dependent on China, thus leading to Moscow selling its natural wealth to Beijing at bargain-basement prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In pursuit of this cynical end, China has simultaneously played an irreplaceable role in providing Ukraine with drones, parts, and fiber optics (even if only indirectly through intermediaries like apologists have speculated) while serving as an irreplaceable valve from sanctions pressure for Russia. Ukraine is therefore able to keep pace with Russia\u2019s military-technical advancements, the Russian economy avoids the crisis that the West sought to catalyze through sanctions, and China maintains its \u201cactive neutrality\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last point refers to China actively helping Ukraine and Russia, thus making it neutral in the sense of not taking either side. China financially profits from Ukraine\u2019s drone-related purchases, its economy continues growing due to the large-scale import of heavily discounted Russian energy, and it relatively reduces the overall Western pressure upon it by proving that it\u2019s not secretly \u201callied\u201d with Russia. This policy, for whatever one might think about its merits, indisputably contributed to prolonging the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had China cut Ukraine off from its drone-related sales in the spirit of its \u201cno-limits\u201d partnership with Russia that was declared several weeks before the start of special operation, then Russia might have attained more of its stated objectives in the conflict by now, if not outright achieved maximum victory. The US\u2019 military and intelligence support for Ukraine is more important than China\u2019s drone-related sales, but since there\u2019s no end to US support in sight, Russia should try to get China to finally cut Ukraine off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you liked this post, consider subscribing \u2013 in right-hand sidebar \u2013 if you are not a subscriber already. Please forward it to anyone else you might think will benefit from it. We are at a critical point in time where we need to disseminate truth to those who have ears to hear, and be forming communities of like-minded individuals. If you want to discuss an idea or issue, contact me \u2013 see Contacts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why Won\u2019t China Cut Ukraine Off From Drone-Related Sales? Andrew Korybko Sep 07, 2026 Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL) referenced the EU\u2019s summertime disbursement of the first \u20ac1 billion to Ukraine for drone procurement out of the \u20ac6 billion promised for this program in an article late last month about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[809],"class_list":["post-9335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everything-to-do-with-politics","tag-andr"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9336,"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions\/9336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoog.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}