No Glory, No Exit: How Chinese Fighters in Ukraine Are Learning War "the Russian Way"

Several hundred Chinese soldiers are fighting in Ukraine.

Captured Chinese national in Ukraine. Image courtesy AFU.

In the age of near-peer conflict and drone-saturated frontlines, there are few places more unforgiving than the muddy killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

And yet, that’s exactly where hundreds of Chinese nationals now find themselves, wearing Russian uniforms, taking orders from Moscow, and dying for a war that isn't theirs.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dropped the bombshell this week in Brussels, revealing that “several hundred” Chinese nationals are fighting alongside Russian occupation forces.

His words weren’t speculative.

They came after Ukrainian troops captured two Chinese fighters in Donetsk, and after Kyiv’s military intelligence identified at least 163 Chinese nationals serving Moscow’s war machine.

But beyond the headlines is a story of strategic naivety, battlefield inexperience, and Russia’s industrial-scale abuse of foreign lives—especially those with no modern combat history.

Because here’s the truth: for all of China’s military modernization, its boots have barely touched real-world battlefields since Vietnam in 1979.

And in Ukraine, that inexperience is proving fatal.

No War, No Wisdom: China’s Century of Combat Silence

While Chinese defense white papers boast of modernization, hypersonic breakthroughs, and global reach, one glaring hole remains: combat. The last time China waged conventional war, disco was still in fashion.

Battlefields teach invaluable lessons.

Lessons learned at great cost in US lives and treasure have been well documented by the US military in the form of doctrines, tactics, techniques, and procedures.

It’s telling that militaries around the world send their officers to US military schools and not Chinese military colleges.

Sure, Chinese scholars have authored books on military strategies in recent years. But without real battlefield experience, China has been unable to translate these theoretical books into a practical, executable doctrine.