WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against two Chinese companies accused of directly helping Russia build long-range attack drones used in the war in Ukraine.
It is the first time the U.S. has imposed penalties on Chinese makers of drone engines and parts for “developing and producing complete weapons systems” in collaboration with Russian companies, the department said.
The U.S. has previously accused China of providing material support to Russia's military-industrial base to sustain the Kremlin's war against Ukraine, and the latest round of sanctions seeks to target the “direct activity” between Beijing and Moscow, according to senior Biden administration officials, who discussed the sanctions on the condition of anonymity before the measures were announced.
Russia’s Garpiya series long-range attack drone, “designed and produced in the People’s Republic of China in collaboration with Russian defense firms, has been used to destroy critical infrastructure and has resulted in mass casualties” during the war in Ukraine, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the U.S. accusations false. It said China's trade with Russia is “open and aboveboard" and in line with World Trade Organization rules and market principles.
“China always handles the export of military products in a prudent and responsible way, and strictly controls the export of dual-use articles, including drones for civilian use,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesman.
China opposes “illegal and unjustifiable unilateral sanctions and so-called long-arm jurisdiction by the U.S.," he said. Pointing out Washington's ongoing military aid to Ukraine, Liu said the U.S. has been “extremely hypocritical and irresponsible.”
The actions come as the U.S. warns of closer ties between Russia, China and other Western adversaries like Iran and North Korea. China has tried to position itself as neutral in the Ukraine conflict and has called for a peace conference with both sides and no expansion of the battlefield.
Beijing, however, has been an economic lifeline for an increasingly isolated Moscow. On Wednesday, the Chinese premier and Russian prime minister met on the sidelines of a regional gathering and agreed to boost cooperation.
The U.S. is imposing sanctions on Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co., which produces drone engines for the Garpiya series, and Redlepus Vector Industry, which has worked with a Russian company already facing sanctions to facilitate the shipment of the drones to Russia.
Redlepus also sends shipments of aircraft engines, parts of automatic data processing machines and electrical components to Russia, the Treasury Department said.
The Biden administration officials said China should have known that the already-penalized Russian company, named TSK Vektor, was a “problematic actor.” The U.S. imposed sanctions on TSK Vektor in December 2023 for helping Russia acquire attack drones.
The officials indicated that the two Chinese firms had been developing long-range attack drones with the Russians since the beginning of the year.
The administration also announced sanctions against Artyom Yamshchikov, a Russian national described as the general director and beneficial owner of TSK Vektor, and the Russian company TD Vector, which has been involved in facilitating the shipments, the officials say. Yamshchikov also directs and owns TD Vector.
FILE - The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park, Feb. 2, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year's attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was the man Israel has hunted for more than a year.
Sinwar has topped Israel’s most wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war just over a year ago, and his killing strikes a powerful blow to the militant group. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death.
The military confirmed Sinwar's death after conducting DNA and other tests on a body that it said was among three militants killed Wednesday during operations in Gaza. Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army,” saying it would “create the possibility to immediately release the hostages.”
Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel has vowed to kill him since the beginning of its retaliatory campaign in Gaza. He has been Hamas’ top leader inside the Gaza Strip for years, closely connected to its military wing while dramatically building up its capabilities.
An Israeli security official said it appeared that the man who turned out to be Sinwar was killed in a battle, not in a planned targeted airstrike.
Photos circulating online showed the body of a man resembling Sinwar with a gaping head wound, dressed in a military-style vest, half buried in the rubble of a destroyed building. The security official confirmed the photos were taken by Israeli security officials at the scene. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
The Israeli news site N12 said Sinwar appears to have been killed by chance in a battle on Wednesday. It said that troops tracked a group of militants into a building, then attacked the militants with tank fire, causing the building to collapse. As troops unearthed the dead militants, they noticed that one appeared to resemble Sinwar.
Sinwar was imprisoned by Israel from the late 1980s until 2011, and during that time he underwent treatment for brain cancer – leaving Israeli authorities with extensive medical records.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on Israel’s investigation into whether it killed Sinwar, and U.S. officials have been in close contact with Israeli officials throughout Thursday morning, according to a senior administration official.
Sinwar was chosen as Hamas’s top leader in July after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital Tehran. Israel has also claimed to have killed the head of Hamas’ military wing Mohammed Deif in an airstrike, but the group has said he survived.
The report of his death came as Israeli forces continued a more than week-old major air and ground assault in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing at least 28 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency unit in the north, said the dead included a woman and four children, correcting an earlier report of five children. He said dozens of people were wounded.
The Israeli military said it targeted a command center run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad inside the school. It provided a list of around a dozen names of people it identified as militants who were present when the strike was called in. It was not immediately possible to verify the names.
Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military says it carries out precise strikes on militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its strikes often kill women and children.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza to eliminate Hamas after the militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Some 100 captives are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says women and children make up a little more than half of the fatalities.
Northern Gaza was the first target of Israel’s ground invasion nearly a year ago and has suffered the heaviest destruction of the war, with entire neighborhoods in Gaza City and other towns reduced to rubble. Most of the population fled after Israel issued evacuation orders in the opening days of the war, but about 400,000 are believed to have remained despite the harsh conditions.
Earlier this month, Israel once again ordered the full-scale evacuation of the north, and allowed no food aid to enter the area for around two weeks. That led many Palestinians to fear that it had adopted a surrender-or-starve strategy suggested by former Israeli generals.
Israel allowed two shipments of aid to enter the north earlier this week after the United States warned it might reduce its military aid if its ally did not do more to address the humanitarian crisis.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have launched repeated operations into Jabaliya, a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. The military says militants have repeatedly regrouped there after major operations.
Magdy reported from Cairo, Jeffery from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Smokes rise following an explosion in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, on April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)
