SBU: Chinese citizens collected secret technologies of Neptune missile production, detained

Chinese citizens who, according to the investigation, tried to transfer classified documents about the Ukrainian Neptune missile system to the Chinese security agencies, have been exposed and detained. This was reported by Security Service of Ukraine and Office of the Prosecutor General.

Two Chinese citizens were detained in Kyiv. According to the intelligence service, they tried to illegally export to China classified documentation on the Ukrainian missile system RK-360MC Neptune.

One of the detainees is a 24-year-old former student of one of Kyiv's technical universities. He stayed in Kyiv after being expelled for academic failure in 2023. The other suspect is his father, who permanently resided in China but periodically visited Ukraine to personally coordinate his son's agent work, the SBU said .

According to the investigation, the 24-year-old Chinese man was supposed to obtain technical documentation on the production of Ukrainian Neptunes. To do this, he tried to recruit a Ukrainian citizen involved in the development of the latest weapons of the Defense Forces.

The SBU exposed the man at the initial stage of his intelligence activity and detained him red-handed while he was handing over secret documents. The next step was the detention of his father, who was supposed to pass classified information to the Chinese special services.

During the searches, the phones with evidence of their correspondence with each other, where they coordinate their espionage activities, were seized from both defendants.

Both detainees were notified of suspicion of espionage. They face up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The Prosecutor General's Office clarified that the 24-year-old man's father entered the territory of Ukraine on July 7 and visited the Chinese Embassy in Kyiv the next day.

On July 9, he was detained as part of a pre-trial investigation. The prosecutor's office plans to serve him with a notice of suspicion of espionage and to apply to the court for his detention.

The Neptune missile system is a unique weapon of the Defense Forces, designed to fire on all types of warships and amphibious assault ships. It was the Neptune that destroyed the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva missile cruiser.

• In April 2025, the Ukrainian military captured two Chinese citizens in the Donetsk region. Later, the president published a video of the interrogation of the captured Chinese citizens, and also said that at least several hundred Chinese are fighting on the side of Russia.
• Beijing denied this information, as well as data on cooperation with Moscow in the military-industrial complex.