Recently, another incident came to light in Ukraine. Russian air defense forces used civilian radars made in China to specifically stare at low-flying FPV drones. This matter was first exposed by the Defence-Express website in Ukraine, and the Defence-Blog website in the United States also followed up and confirmed it. The radar model is FSTH-LD02/03, which is from Zhejiang Fanshuang Technology Company. It was originally sold to civilian use. It is designed to target low-altitude targets within 10 kilometers and can catch small objects with a radar reflection cross-section area of only 0.01 square meters. Russia's 22nd Air Defense Missile Regiment officially equipped this thing to search for low-altitude drones. Coupled with their FPV interceptors, they can guide those things to hit Ukraine drones. The report mentioned that Russian soldiers used this radar to scan the sky and directly sent it to interceptors after locking on the target. Several drones in Ukraine such as Leleka-100M2, MiniShark-D, Vector, Heavy Shot, Darts and Distractor were hit and several were shot down.
This radar is not a military product. The website of Zhejiang Fanshuang clearly indicates civilian specifications. It mainly relies on mechanical scanning and works in Ku band, with a frequency of 12-18GHz and a wavelength of 2.5-1.67 cm. The size is compact, 1 meter by 0.6 meter, making it easy to carry around. The accuracy is a distance of 10 meters, and the azimuth and elevation angle are 0.5 degrees. The upgraded version can reach 20 kilometers, but the basic version is enough for Russia. The problem is that China strictly controls the export of this kind of dual-use equipment, and it is difficult to sell it directly to Russia or Ukraine. Therefore, Russia should have rescheduled it from a third party, and the quantity will not be large, and the maintenance will not keep up. When Ukraine saw this situation, it found it troublesome, because more than 90% of their drone parts were supplied by China, including DJI's commercial models, which were assembled and flying around the battlefield. Now Russia uses Chinese radar to stare at them in turn, and it feels like its own thing is hitting its own face.
The main force of the Russian anti-drone is still the domestic goods, the Chinese radar is only subsidized. The battlefield data show that this can be used in the low-air search, but the large-scale outcomes have not been. The Ukrainian intelligence department monitored the Russian positions, found these radars sent the reconnaissance team to look at and record the location. The Russian troops dismantled the radar when transferred, and continued to use instead. Both sides in the drone, the bracelet, and Chinese civilian goods became the focus. From the start of the battle in 2022, the Dzhangming drone was on the pitch, Russia and Ukraine bought, and Ukraine rebuilt hand grenades to throw bombs, the explosion range of 25 meters. Russia also used, but Ukraine used more. In
In May 2024, a Ukrainian drone bombed the Russian Voronezh Mredar in Olsk, Orenburg region, 1,500 km from the Ukrainian-controlled zone. The radar was a Russian early warning system that could monitor the movements of the Ukrainian army, this time by the Ukrainian intelligence agency sent a drone flying 1,800 km, the Russian media said the drone crashed and did not injure civilian facilities. In April 2024, the Ukrainian intelligence agency bombed the Russian 29B6 Container radar with a drone, claiming that the thing could catch the F-35 stealth aircraft from 1,500 km away, but the Ukrainian drone was drilling it because it was low-air detection of blind areas.
The role of Chinese companies in the war is becoming more and more prominent. In 2023, a Chinese company sent military drones to Russia for testing, and the final destination was the Ukrainian battlefield. Western intelligence says evidence shows that Chinese companies have supplied deadly weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. In September 2024, Western officials confirmed that the Reuters report was true. Chinese companies sent special military drones to Russia for testing in 2023 and entered Ukraine. On the British side, last year Defense Secretary Grant Shapps declassified intelligence, saying that Chinese weapons supported Russia in Ukraine. Both China and Russia denied it, and the United States also said it was wrong at the time, but now the evidence on the battlefield has come out. A fully Chinese-made drone was discovered in Ukraine. The model UAV CBSTBS 611000 is a Russian decoy drone used to consume Ukrainian air defense. In July 2025, the Telegraph reported that this was the first time that a fully Chinese-made drone was discovered in Ukraine.
Russia uses fiber optic cable drones, which will be launched in the summer of 2024. The cable length is more than 10 kilometers and is resistant to electronic warfare and GPS interference. China supplies key parts, such as fiber optic reels, and Russia produces nine times more than Ukraine. Ukraine's Magyar Birds Brigade responded with mobile radar, detecting Russian FPV drones a few kilometers away, and then sending its own drone to crash it. In January 2025, they released a video of a Ukraine drone destroying the Russian fiber-guided FPV. The Ukraine military said that the army must equip mobile radars and FPV fighters every 2-4 kilometers of the front line to destroy enemy fiber-optic drones.
The expert group examined the foreign parts of the three Russian drones, Shahed-136/131, Lancet and Orlan-10, 67% from China. In August 2023, the Yermak-McFaul team this. The Russian Shahed drone was localized after 2022, thrown on the Ukrainian front, and the Ukrainian air defense missiles stopped a lot. On October 5, 2025, at least three Chinese remote sensing satellites flew through the western Ukraine from the Yaogan series, where the Russian massive missile and drone attacks hit the heaviest.
Ukraine deployed the Sky Sentinel system in 2025 with a domestic AI drone, costing $150,000, automatically locking Russian targets. Russia in 2025 introduced the Tuvik AI drone, narrowing the gap. Both drones lost tens of thousands, Chinese parts were used on the Ukrainian assembly line. Russian electronic warplanes interfered with Ukrainian signals, Ukraine pointed to Chinese satellites to Russian intelligence. In the past conflict, China's weapons exports did not shake the big picture, the two-Iran war in 1980-1988, China sold $7.5 billion in weapons, accounting for arms sales of 75%, but more are complementary. The Gulf war in 1990-1991, China's Type 69 tanks and HY-1 missiles were used in Iraq, but the alliance technology was crushed. Kosovo in
Russia and Ukraine have been fighting for more than three years. From February 2022 to the present, both sides have paid great attention to anti-drones. Chinese civilian goods are durable and reliable. There is a huge gap, but they have not influenced the war situation. After China tightened its exports, Russia still got radar and used it in the 22nd Regiment of the 11th Army. Ukraine uses Chinese engines disguised as cooling devices to assemble drones and throw them on the front line. Russia's new radar will be put into use in October 2025, equipped with FPV interception, even in bad weather, and automatically commanding the interceptor. Ukrainian police accuse DPR officers of abuse in Donetsk's Izolyatsia prison, but the focus is still on drone warfare. Russia uses Chinese radar to hunt Ukrainian drones, and Ukrainian heavy drones counter Russian radar. The scale of civil goods is small, and the balance has not been shaken.