•Prisoners of war, Zhang Renbo and Wang Guangjun
Ukraine yesterday held a press conference at which Chinese prisoners of war under armed guard told journalists they hoped to be swapped and warned other Chinese nationals not to go to fight.
The event came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of dragging Beijing into its invasion, saying Friday that several hundred Chinese nationals were fighting at the front line, reports AFP.
The Kremlin denied the claim, while Beijing warned parties to the conflict against making “irresponsible remarks”.
Two Chinese men dressed in camouflage uniform were escorted into a Kyiv press centre in handcuffs and sat flanked by armed Ukrainian soldiers, with no way of telling whether they were expressing themselves of their own free will.
Speaking Chinese, they said they were captured fighting in the eastern Donetsk region after joining the army via online ads.
“I hope China can exchange me with Russia and Ukraine and bring me back to China,” said one of the men, 26-year-old Zhang Renbo.
The other, 33-year-old Wang Guangjun, said: “To my compatriots who want to join the Ukraine war, I want to say: don’t take part in this war”.
The soldier accused Russia of lying about its military strength and Ukraine’s weakness.
“When you really participate in the war, when the moment of the fighting comes, you will find that everything is a lie,” he said.
