A new photo appeared on social networks, which shows that Chinese-made weapons of unknown origin have reached the Ukrainian army.

A Chinese-made machine gun on a Ukrainian military truckPhoto: Twitter – Ukraine Weapons Tracker

According to the administrators of the Ukraine Weapons Tracker page, it is a W85 machine gun that uses 12.7×108 mm ammunition. Interestingly, the W85 machine gun, despite the fact that it is Chinese-made, can use Soviet-made ammunition, so perhaps we see it in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

But how he ended up in the hands of the Kyiv troops is a mystery, because China is one of the few countries in the world that did not condemn the war of aggression launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24.

Furthermore, while Beijing officially maintains a neutral stance on the war, Chinese state media report the conflict in terms used by Kremlin propaganda.

One possibility is that the W85 machine guns, which are extremely rare among European armed forces, arrived in Ukraine after being purchased from third parties.

Chinese weapons as a gift to Ukraine, through Iran?

One of the most likely options would be that they were part of a package of weapons delivered by Iran to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whom it supports as part of its proxy war against Saudi Arabia. If a shipment of machine guns were intercepted by US forces or other interested parties in the area, they could be donated or sold to Ukraine, depending on who intercepted them.

It is believed that Iranian 120 mm mortars, the images of which Ukrainian soldiers have been using on social networks since mid-July, also got into the Ukrainian army in this way.

Some netizens also suggested that the W85 machine guns may have been sent to Ukraine by Albania, given the close relationship between Tirana and Beijing during the communist era and military cooperation between the two.

They also reminded about bombs with Chinese markings, spotted in the equipment of the armed forces of Kyiv in September, ammunition that the Ukrainian army received from the government of Albania.

But, according to publicly available information, there are no W85 machine guns or similar Chinese models in the Albanian armed forces.

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