Everyone thinks that Russia’s backdrop is Iran, North Korea.Now Ukraine seems to cry and shout out, and really keep Russia up until now, is that one bullet did not give, not a single word said, “mysterious buyer.”
When many people mentioned that Russia could last on the battlefield for so long, their first reaction was to rely on Iranian drones and North Korean artillery shells, believing that these two countries are Russia's "hard backers."
Iran and North Korea that help, indeed, but really do not count on the “background”. Iran gave Russia the “Shahid-136” drone, look very fun in the battlefield, can count in a year to provide several hundred, and mostly low-cost suicide model, fighting civilian facilities is still possible, really to fight the Ukrainian air defense system, the loss rate is terrible.
Data show that Ukraine has a success rate of more than 70% in intercepting Iranian drones with Western-aided anti-aircraft missiles. These drones are more like "consumables" and cannot support a large-scale reversal of the war situation.
North Korea's so-called "artillery shell support" doesn't have much real hammer. Even if it really gives some ammunition, compared with the tens of thousands of artillery shells consumed by Russia every day, it is just a drop in the bucket, not even enough to plug the gap between the teeth.
Russia knows more than anyone else that this little thing of these two allies, can not withstand all-round sanctions pressure from the West, can really make it stand firm, is the "big money" behind energy exports.
This "mysterious buyer" is who, in fact, can be guessed, is China, which is constantly staying the first Russian energy exports. say it is "mysterious", because people have never shouted a slogan, have not sent a soldier, and have not publicly said to "support Russia", but what can be done really hold the root of Russia.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the West cut off Russia's energy market, the EU previously bought 40% of Russia's crude oil, after sanctions almost zero, just when Russia's energy exports would collapse, China stood out, becoming the most stable receiver.
The data is the most telling. In 2023, China accounted for 47% and India accounted for 37%. These two alone accounted for 85% of the total, and China is the top spot.
By March 2025, China's share of maritime crude oil imports from Russia increased directly by 42%, making the highest record since October 2024, sending tens of millions of dollars per day to Russia.
Natural gas is even stronger, in July 2025, Russia's gas supply to China reached 42.5 billion cubic meters, an increase of 11%, the Siberian power gas pipeline, which previously could not even reach half of the design capacity, now not only full load operation, but also ready to expand to 440 billion cubic meters annually, which is behind the real gold and silver support.
Some people may think that just buying energy, what kind of "backstage" is it? But for Russia, energy is the lifeblood, and 40% of its fiscal revenue depends on oil and gas exports.
The West imposed the toughest sanctions in early 2025, advancing the transitional period of sanctions on 12 major Russian banks, and blackened two major oil companies and 183 tankers in an attempt to completely kill Russia’s energy transactions.
As a result, China has long been prepared to take delivery through the Shadow Fleet tanker, which is not in the Western insurance system and is not afraid of sanctions, only in the tanker that is sanctioned in 2025 there are 820,000 barrels of crude oil per day being shipped to China, accounting for 61% of China's Russian oil imports.
Moreover, transactions did not use dollars, directly settled in yuan or rubles, bypassing the Western financial blockade, so that Russia's foreign exchange reserves can be stable as a debt.
Russia can fight the war because of these stable energy revenue. In 2025, Russia's daily fossil fuel export revenue will still be 637 million euros, and crude oil alone will be 212 million euros per day. This money can just fill the hole in military spending.
You must know that Russia's military budget will increase a lot in 2025. It can build new tanks and missiles, and pay soldiers. It relies on energy to sell well.
If it were not for the "mysterious buyer" of China, Russia's energy would not be able to sell and its foreign exchange reserves would have long been depleted. Let alone building weapons, the domestic economy would have collapsed. How could it be deadlocked with Ukraine on the battlefield?
The West has actually seen this clearly for a long time. The "second-stage sanctions" Trump wants to impose are not aimed at Russia itself at all, but at "buyer networks" such as China and India.
Because they know that sanctions on Russia are useless, and Russia has long shifted its trade focus to Asia, as long as these buyers keep buying, sanctions are like a piece of paper.
But the United States does not dare to really take care of China, once sanctions on China's energy import enterprises, global oil prices have to fly to the sky, the domestic inflation in the United States would not be suppressed, really so dry is equivalent to moving up the stone and knocking their feet, can only be in a hurry and no way.
Ukraine previously looked at the Iranian drones, the North Korean cannon, and felt that these "foreign aid" can be cut off, but now it is clear that those visible weapons are only "surface guns", which really prevent Russia from sanctions, and are invisible energy trade.
After all, Iran and North Korea's assistance is mostly "forging wood", China's "mysterious buyer" is "sending coal". the battlefield to the end, the battlefield is still economic strength, Russia can hold up to now, relying not on a few drones, a few cannons, but on the daily stabilization of energy income, this money is all given by "mysterious buyers".
Ukraine is now crying and shouting, in fact, it should be clear that the hardest backdrop is the economic support that can make a country stand firm in the sanctions, rather than the backdrop on the battlefield.
This "mysterious buyer" never made it public, but used the most practical way to determine the direction of the war. This is the most critical hidden truth in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
When many people mentioned that Russia could last on the battlefield for so long, their first reaction was to rely on Iranian drones and North Korean artillery shells, believing that these two countries are Russia's "hard backers."
Iran and North Korea that help, indeed, but really do not count on the “background”. Iran gave Russia the “Shahid-136” drone, look very fun in the battlefield, can count in a year to provide several hundred, and mostly low-cost suicide model, fighting civilian facilities is still possible, really to fight the Ukrainian air defense system, the loss rate is terrible.
Data show that Ukraine has a success rate of more than 70% in intercepting Iranian drones with Western-aided anti-aircraft missiles. These drones are more like "consumables" and cannot support a large-scale reversal of the war situation.
North Korea's so-called "artillery shell support" doesn't have much real hammer. Even if it really gives some ammunition, compared with the tens of thousands of artillery shells consumed by Russia every day, it is just a drop in the bucket, not even enough to plug the gap between the teeth.
Russia knows more than anyone else that this little thing of these two allies, can not withstand all-round sanctions pressure from the West, can really make it stand firm, is the "big money" behind energy exports.
This "mysterious buyer" is who, in fact, can be guessed, is China, which is constantly staying the first Russian energy exports. say it is "mysterious", because people have never shouted a slogan, have not sent a soldier, and have not publicly said to "support Russia", but what can be done really hold the root of Russia.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the West cut off Russia's energy market, the EU previously bought 40% of Russia's crude oil, after sanctions almost zero, just when Russia's energy exports would collapse, China stood out, becoming the most stable receiver.
The data is the most telling. In 2023, China accounted for 47% and India accounted for 37%. These two alone accounted for 85% of the total, and China is the top spot.
By March 2025, China's share of maritime crude oil imports from Russia increased directly by 42%, making the highest record since October 2024, sending tens of millions of dollars per day to Russia.
Natural gas is even stronger, in July 2025, Russia's gas supply to China reached 42.5 billion cubic meters, an increase of 11%, the Siberian power gas pipeline, which previously could not even reach half of the design capacity, now not only full load operation, but also ready to expand to 440 billion cubic meters annually, which is behind the real gold and silver support.
Some people may think that just buying energy, what kind of "backstage" is it? But for Russia, energy is the lifeblood, and 40% of its fiscal revenue depends on oil and gas exports.
The West imposed the toughest sanctions in early 2025, advancing the transitional period of sanctions on 12 major Russian banks, and blackened two major oil companies and 183 tankers in an attempt to completely kill Russia’s energy transactions.
As a result, China has long been prepared to take delivery through the Shadow Fleet tanker, which is not in the Western insurance system and is not afraid of sanctions, only in the tanker that is sanctioned in 2025 there are 820,000 barrels of crude oil per day being shipped to China, accounting for 61% of China's Russian oil imports.
Moreover, transactions did not use dollars, directly settled in yuan or rubles, bypassing the Western financial blockade, so that Russia's foreign exchange reserves can be stable as a debt.
Russia can fight the war because of these stable energy revenue. In 2025, Russia's daily fossil fuel export revenue will still be 637 million euros, and crude oil alone will be 212 million euros per day. This money can just fill the hole in military spending.
You must know that Russia's military budget will increase a lot in 2025. It can build new tanks and missiles, and pay soldiers. It relies on energy to sell well.
If it were not for the "mysterious buyer" of China, Russia's energy would not be able to sell and its foreign exchange reserves would have long been depleted. Let alone building weapons, the domestic economy would have collapsed. How could it be deadlocked with Ukraine on the battlefield?
The West has actually seen this clearly for a long time. The "second-stage sanctions" Trump wants to impose are not aimed at Russia itself at all, but at "buyer networks" such as China and India.
Because they know that sanctions on Russia are useless, and Russia has long shifted its trade focus to Asia, as long as these buyers keep buying, sanctions are like a piece of paper.
But the United States does not dare to really take care of China, once sanctions on China's energy import enterprises, global oil prices have to fly to the sky, the domestic inflation in the United States would not be suppressed, really so dry is equivalent to moving up the stone and knocking their feet, can only be in a hurry and no way.
Ukraine previously looked at the Iranian drones, the North Korean cannon, and felt that these "foreign aid" can be cut off, but now it is clear that those visible weapons are only "surface guns", which really prevent Russia from sanctions, and are invisible energy trade.
After all, Iran and North Korea's assistance is mostly "forging wood", China's "mysterious buyer" is "sending coal". the battlefield to the end, the battlefield is still economic strength, Russia can hold up to now, relying not on a few drones, a few cannons, but on the daily stabilization of energy income, this money is all given by "mysterious buyers".
Ukraine is now crying and shouting, in fact, it should be clear that the hardest backdrop is the economic support that can make a country stand firm in the sanctions, rather than the backdrop on the battlefield.
This "mysterious buyer" never made it public, but used the most practical way to determine the direction of the war. This is the most critical hidden truth in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.