Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed details of a new tactic involving the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, which, according to him, China is supplying to Russia. The head of state described a scenario in which an enemy drone is capable of flying directly into the window of a residential premises, hovering inside and waiting for people to appear, after which it carries out a strike. “China is transferring new drone technologies to Russia. Among the examples is a drone that flies into a window, hovers inside and attacks when people enter the room,” Zelensky stated. This description underscores a shift from the traditional model of aerial attacks to a tactic aimed at exerting maximum psychological pressure on the civilian population.
Technology transfer from China: from components to finished systems
In the same interview, Zelensky noted that China is on the verge of creating technologies similar to Starlink and will transfer them to Moscow. “They have already started doing it — and acting very, how shall I put it, precisely. Carrying out very precise strikes on Ukrainian territory,” the president emphasized. His words indicate that, according to Kyiv's assessment, this is not about one-off deliveries, but about a systematic technology transfer that includes both the hardware of the drones and the communication and guidance systems. Previously, Politico reported that the Chinese state-owned company Jilin Chemical Fiber Group was secretly supplying chemicals used in the production of strike drones to Russia. In late 2025, Reuters published documents showing that Chinese companies were supplying finished drones to the Russian Federation, and that Chinese engineers were directly involved in testing military drones on Russian territory.
Kyiv's position on Beijing's neutrality
The statements in the WSJ interview continued a series of public assessments by Zelensky regarding China's role in the conflict. Previously, the Ukrainian president stated outright that Beijing is not observing neutrality in Russia's war against Ukraine. In addition, he warned that the deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang is capable of creating additional security threats for the entire region of East Asia. Thus, the Kyiv side is consistently building a narrative that the Russian military machine relies on a multipolar supply network, in which China acts as the key technology donor and North Korea as the supplier of munitions and personnel.
Context: the air war and sanctions pressure
Zelensky's statements about new types of drones came against the backdrop of an ongoing intensive air campaign. On September 2, 2026, according to Euronews, the Ukrainian president noted that Russian airspace would “effectively close” due to the massive use of drones and air defense systems. In late July 2026, the US Senate approved a bill on strict sanctions against Russia, and drones attacked the Moscow suburbs, indicating the two-way nature of the air war. Under these conditions, Zelensky's description of drones capable of penetrating residential premises takes on additional significance: it documents an escalation of tactics in which the boundary between military and civilian infrastructure is blurred to the extreme.
Contradictory data
It should be noted that the specific technical description of a drone that flies into a window and hovers inside a room had, at the time of publication, not been independently confirmed by either Ukrainian military sources or Western intelligence services in the provided materials. This statement was made exclusively by the President of Ukraine in the format of an interview and is of a public assessment nature. At the same time, the broader claims about Chinese supplies of drones and components to Russia are supported by documents previously published by Reuters (late 2025) and by Politico's investigation into chemical supplies from Jilin Chemical Fiber Group. Thus, the fact of technological cooperation between China and the Russian Federation in the field of UAVs has a documentary basis, while the specific “window” drone modification remains at the level of a presidential statement, awaiting verification.
