It will be enough for 80 million ammunition: the Chinese State Company supplied tons of gunpowder - NYT

Facts for the supply of smokeless gunpowder can raise new questions about the participation of China in the war against Ukraine. The recipient of the components was the Barnaul cartridge plant. In 2022, one Chinese company transferred tens of thousands of kilograms of smokeless gunpowder for ammunition in the Russian Federation. About it reports The New York Times.

In the city of Zabaikalsk, Chinese state company Poly Technologies, against which the United States imposed sanctions for the sale of missile technologies to Iran, supplied gunpowder. Smokeless powder was intended for the Barnaul cartridge plant. These previously unregistered facts were discovered by the American Import Genius Trade Aggregator. The fact of supply of gunpowder raises new questions about the role of China in support of the Russian Federation, which is fighting against Ukraine.

US officials have expressed concern that Beijing could send "fatal assistance" to Russia, although they did not say directly that China had made such deliveries, they write in the publication. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said during a speech in Beijing that the PRC assured the states that they did not provide fatal assistance to the Russian Federation for the war against Ukraine. "But what bothers us is private companies in China that can assist," Blinken said.

Some experts believe that from the beginning of the invasion, the Barnaul cartridge plant has received $ 2 million. Swimades will produce ammunition for AK and sniper rifles. Poly Technologies is a subsidiary of China Poly Group Corporation owned by the China Government. Previously, this company has already supplied navigation equipment and helicopter parts to the Russian Federation. In December, the Barnaul cartridge plant came under the sanctions of the European Union.

Information from open sources indicates that the plant could serve as a training camp related to Wagner PEC. There is no direct evidence that smokeless powder has a direct connection with the battle field in Ukraine. Poly Technologies wrote that gunpowder is needed for "hunting rounds of foreign sample". However, the analyst Brian Carlson from the Center for Security Research says that these are military ammunition.