By Galina Korol | 2025-09-04

Russia is working hard to show that it is not isolated. In occupied Luhansk, officials have begun spotlighting Chinese business and education projects as proof that life under sanctions can still attract foreign partners and as a reminder to domestic audiences that Beijing is standing by Moscow.

In late July, an alleged Chinese delegation led by businessman Li Zhiyuan arrived in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) to talk economics. Leonid Pasechnik, the LPR's leader, posted a video of the meeting on Telegram and announced that his administration had signed a memorandum of cooperation.

The document, signed by First Deputy Chairman Yury Govtvin, promises new jobs, higher tax revenues and modernization of local industry with Chinese backing.

The Kremlin's political strategists used the visit to send a domestic message: while the West imposes sanctions, China supposedly sees investment potential in the region.

Reports of a "revival of industry" and "modernization" were meant to suggest growth and international recognition. Pasechnik has been cast as a mouthpiece, declaring that "relations between the two countries are at a historically high level," in an effort to frame the self-proclaimed republic as part of a larger alliance with China.

Pure propaganda

In reality, experts say, it is a propaganda scheme.

"The Chinese will follow directives from their embassy," Dmytro Yefremov, a sinologist and research fellow at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, told Kontur.

He noted the embassy avoids allowing such steps publicly because China still officially recognizes Ukraine's territorial integrity.

"This news peg about China in occupied Donbas is pure manipulation, seeded by the Russians for both us [Ukrainians] and the Chinese," he added.

The outreach is not confined to industry. In June, the Luhansk Information Center reported that Chinese organizers are planning a private school in Luhansk for 300 Chinese students.

The school would follow Russian standards and pitch itself as a solution for Chinese families who find high school at home prohibitively expensive and fiercely competitive. Organizers describe the city as a "second homeland," a place where students could pursue a full secondary education at lower cost.

Voronezh, not Beijing

In July, journalists from Ukraine's Realna Gazeta noted striking irregularities during the most recent meeting in Luhansk between occupation authorities and what was described as a Chinese delegation.

No Chinese flag appeared in any photos or video from the event, an omission that suggested there were no official Chinese representatives present. Background checks raised further doubts.

One participant, Talekh Abasov, was presented as a businessman but is from Voronezh, Russia, and runs a charity that supports veterans of Moscow's war in Ukraine and promotes ties with Vietnam. Another, Liu Yantao, was labeled an investor, but records list him as an entrepreneur registered in a Russian village, not China.

The supposed head of the delegation, Li Zhiyuan, also appeared dubious. Business records show a person by that name ceased activity in Krasnoyarsk in 2005, while a podcast featured him saying, "I consider my ties with China to be a stroke of luck," a phrase journalists said sounded odd for a Chinese national.

"The most likely scenario is that they put on a circus act in Luhansk with people who look Chinese," Realna Gazeta concluded.

Chinese hidden investments

Propaganda stunts in occupied Ukraine mask real Chinese-backed projects, Andrii Dikhtiarenko, editor-in-chief of Realna Gazeta, told Kontur.

"On the one hand, we're seeing absurd actions where Buryats or Voronezh activists are being passed off as Chinese. But for every humorous act of propaganda, a real project might exist somewhere," he said.

Dikhtiarenko and his colleagues verified one such project in Donetsk Region: a granite quarry in the town of Myrne near Mariupol.

"China is trying to go [into the occupied territories] in such a way as to not damage its official position and reputation. But unfortunately, this cooperation [with Russia in the occupied territories] exists," he said.

Chinese companies and equipment with Chinese markings are operating at the quarry, according to him.

"The occupiers used Chinese investment with Chinese equipment to build several new factories there, and this is a rather large project," Dikhtiarenko said.

The crushed stone and concrete are being used to rebuild roads around Mariupol, construct a federal highway ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and support reconstruction efforts in the city.

Dikhtiarenko argued that the occupiers' image that "Mariupol is being rebuilt" depends on both propaganda and Chinese money.

Chinese enclave risks

Amid Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory, reports of a staged Chinese delegation and Chinese-backed quarry near Mariupol point to a deeper geopolitical game: Moscow seeks to entrench control while Beijing balances ambiguity with access to resources.

The Eastern Human Rights Group, a Ukrainian organization that has monitored abuses under occupation since 2014, warns this dynamic could have lasting consequences.

"In June 2025, plans to resettle Chinese citizens in the region came to light," the group wrote on Facebook on August 13.

According to the group, such a settlement would feature its own education system and economic interests disconnected from the local population.

"Essentially this amounts to laying the groundwork for China's long-term influence in the region," the organization concluded.