China rejected allegations that it is helping Russia expand production of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik ballistic missile, saying it would not accept “blame-shifting,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry on January 29.
Asked about a Telegraph investigation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that China’s position on the war “is consistent and clear,” adding: “We neither fuel the flames, nor seek profit from the crisis, and will never accept blame-shifting.”
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Guo also said China urges parties to follow the principles of “no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no provocation by any party,” and that China “will continue to play a constructive role in its own way to ease the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.”
The Telegraph said China has supplied specialized equipment and machine tools used in missile production, including a Chinese-made computer numerical control (CNC) lathe that Ukrainian military intelligence identified at Russia’s Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, a major missile manufacturing facility that produces the Oreshnik.
Russia’s Oreshnik, whose name means “Hazel Tree” in Russia, is an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads, and Russia has used it in strikes on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service has said Russia has no more than three or four Oreshnik missiles and plans in 2026 to begin large-scale production with the capacity to manufacture five or more a year.
Earlier, China warned Ukraine against sanctioning Chinese companies over alleged support for Russia’s war effort, saying it would take measures to protect legitimate rights if Chinese interests were targeted unjustly.
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