US intel report details increasing importance of Chinese technology to Russia's war in Ukraine

China is providing technology and equipment to Russia that is increasingly important to Moscow's war in Ukraine, according to a newly released report compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The report, titled "Support Provided by the People's Republic of China to Russia" and dated 2023, is unclassified and largely cites open-source data and western press reporting to support its claims. But it includes the US intelligence community assessment that China "has become an increasingly important buttress for Russia in its war effort."

The report says that as of March, China "had shipped more than $12 million in drones and drone parts" to Russia, citing a "third-party analysis" of Russian customs data.

Chinese state-owned defense companies have also been providing sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies with other dual-use technology "that Moscow's military uses to continue the war in Ukraine," the report says, including "navigation equipment, jamming technology, and fighter-jet parts."

Semiconductor exports from China to Russia have also jumped considerably since 2021, it adds, with "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of US-made or US-branded semiconductors flowing into Russia" despite heavy western sanctions and export controls.

The report says Chinese firms are "probably" helping Moscow to evade these sanctions - though it is "difficult to ascertain the extent" of that help. The report says the intelligence community cannot be sure whether Beijing is deliberately interfering with the US' ability to conduct export control checks, via interviews and investigations, inside China.

The report does say, however, that China "has become an even more critical economic partner for Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022."