US imposes sanctions on Chinese companies accused of helping make Russian attack drones

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against two Chinese makers of drone engines and parts that the Biden administration said directly helped Russia build long-range attack drones used in the war in Ukraine.

The US has previously accused China of supplying energy material support to Russia’s military-industrial base to continue the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, and the latest round of sanctions targeted “direct activity” between Beijing and Moscow, according to senior Biden administration officials, who discussed the sanctions on condition of anonymity before the measures were announced.

Russia’s Garpiya series long-range attack drone, “designed and produced in the People’s Republic of China in cooperation with Russian defense companies, has been used to destroy critical infrastructure and resulted in massive casualties” during the war in Ukraine, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Beijing has insisted that it does not supply weapons to either Ukraine or Russia, and it has defended its trade with Russia as normal and in the best way possible.

The US is imposing sanctions on Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Company, which produces drone engines, and Redlepus Vector Industry, which has worked with a Russian entity that has already faced sanctions to facilitate the shipment of drones to Russia.

The government officials said China should have known that the Russian entity, TSK Vektor, was a “problematic actor.”

They indicated that the two Chinese companies had been developing long-range attack drones together with the Russians since the beginning of this year.

The government also announced sanctions against Artem Mikhailovich Yamshchikov, a Russian national described as the ultimate owner of TSK Vektor, and Russian entity TD Vector, which has been involved in facilitating the shipments, officials said.