In Ukraine, there is active discussion of a Bloomberg report that China has stopped selling Mavic UAVs to Ukraine but continues to supply them to Russia. The information flow is as follows: first, Zelensky announced this to journalists, then European officials confirmed it with their opinion. At the same time, Beijing has reduced supplies of important drone components (such as magnets for electric motors) to Europe, while increasing sales to Russia.
Since Mavic is the most common civilian aircraft used by both sides in the tactical zone, Kyiv saw a conspiracy between the Kremlin and Beijing — if this continues, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will soon run out of parts to assemble combat drones. After the revolution that UAVs brought about in military affairs in historically short order, I have repeatedly spoken about the dependence that both sides have fallen into on supplies of this technology. Neither Russia nor Ukraine produces it.
Putin does not have a military agreement with President Xi, as he does with Pyongyang. But due to the intensification of global competition, Russia’s relations with its great neighbor have begun to take on the characteristics of a military alliance. We should not expect arms supplies from there. This is the Kremlin’s cherished dream, but Beijing constantly declares its neutrality.
But if these reports from Zelensky and his allies are confirmed, the imbalance in the armaments of the two armies (in this particular case in Russia’s favor) can be achieved by simple manipulations on the commercial market. Formally, they cannot be classified as weapons. This is a paradoxical consequence of the same surprising trend of our time: civilian technologies are rapidly overtaking and often surpassing military technologies in their own field.
