US targets Chinese firm for helping Russia’s Wagner group in Ukraine
- Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co is said to have provided satellite imagery to enable the mercenaries’ combat operations
- The company was sanctioned as part of a slew of actions against the Wagner group, which the US has designated a transnational criminal organisation
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Chinese company for allegedly providing satellite imagery in Ukraine to help Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which has come under growing US pressure.
The Treasury Department and State Department announced a slew of actions as they formally designated the Wagner group as a transnational criminal organisation, a move previewed last week by the White House.
The new sanctions “will further impede the Kremlin’s ability to arm its war-machine that is engaged in a war of aggression against Ukraine, and which has caused unconscionable death and destruction,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Among the firms targeted was Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co., a Chinese firm that the Treasury Department said has provided satellite imagery over Ukraine to the Wagner Group.
“These images were gathered in order to enable Wagner combat operations in Ukraine,” said a statement by the Treasury Department, which also announced sanctions on a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of the Chinese company.
China is officially an ally of Russia but the United States has trumpeted what it sees as Beijing’s tepid support for the war in Ukraine, including a refusal to supply Moscow with weapons.