Zelenskiy says Ukraine has evidence of China supplying Russia with artillery

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine has quality which shows China is supplying artillery and gunpowder to Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said connected Thursday.

"We judge that Chinese representatives are engaged successful the accumulation of immoderate weapons connected the territory of Russia," helium told a property league successful Kyiv. Zelenskiy did not specify whether helium meant artillery systems oregon shells.

The allegation is apt to upend relations betwixt Kyiv and Beijing, already strained by Ukraine's making nationalist its seizure of Chinese nationals warring for Russia. China has truthful acold tried to support an outward cognition of neutrality successful the three-year warfare prompted by Russia's full-scale penetration of Ukraine.

Ukraine has antecedently called connected China to usage its power implicit Russia to propulsion it towards peace.

"We already person facts astir this enactment by China and Russia to fortify their defence capabilities," Zelenskiy said, voicing his dismay arsenic helium said Chinese President Xi Jinping had promised him Beijing would not merchantability oregon proviso weapons to Moscow.

(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; penning by Max Hunder; editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Heinrich)