China has approved the provision of lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but wanted any deliveries to remain secret, according to leaked US government documents, The Guardian reports. On the other hand, China denies that it has sent or will send weapons to Russia, and Ukraine says that it is increasingly finding Chinese components in weapons used by Russia.

An intelligence briefing on February 23 said Beijing had approved a gradual supply of weapons to Moscow that it would disguise as civilian goods, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The information was collected by American agents who intercepted the conversations of the Russian special services, the newspaper reports. China’s Central Military Commission wanted the shipments to remain secret, according to Russia, he added.

A separate file of information from the leaked documents says that Beijing would consider a “significant” strike by Ukraine with US or NATO weapons on Russian territory as an escalation of the conflict that merits sending weapons to Russia.

The files were part of a larger series of classified documents leaked on the online platform Discord last month. On Friday, Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old accused of leaking documents, will appear in court in Boston.

• Pentagon Leaks: the suspect in the leak of documents was caught / Footage from his arrest – VIDEO

The information about China’s readiness to send weapons to Russia appears to be true

US officials have said the documents are genuine and contain highly classified information, although some appear to have been forged.

The leak about China’s willingness to send weapons to Russia appears to be genuine, given that immediately after the February intelligence report, US government officials publicly stated this. Beijing strongly denies these allegations. There is no evidence that such weapons were actually sent.

Ukraine says it is finding more and more Chinese components in weapons used by Russia

Ukrainian forces are finding more and more components from China in Russian weapons used in Ukraine, an adviser from the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky told Reuters.

“We continue to find various electronics in weapons recovered from the battlefield,” said Vladyslav Vlasyuk, who advises the head of the Presidential Administration on sanctions policy.

“Now the trend is that in the West, fewer components are produced, but more – it is not difficult to guess which country – manufactures the components. Of course, China,” he said in a video call.

China denies that it has sent or will send weapons to Russia

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday that his country would not supply weapons to either side of the conflict and would limit exports of dual-use technology.

“We do not and will not supply arms to the parties to the conflict,” Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said after nearly two hours of talks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock in Beijing.

China, like Russia, is critical of NATO and suggests that the conflict is at least partly caused by the bloc’s expansion.

Beijing says it wants to help resolve the conflict through political solutions. But Western leaders believe that President Xi Jinping’s apparent loyalty to President Vladimir Putin undermines that position.

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