Western countries have begun taking measures against earlier routes through the UAE and Kazakhstan.
China is exporting drones to Russia via a new route – through Thailand, Bloomberg reports.
According to the agency, drone exports from Thailand to Russia have sharply increased since 2022, which correlates with the rise in drone imports from China to Thailand.
Last year, over 11 months, Russia imported drones from Thailand worth $125 million. As Bloomberg notes, this accounts for 88% of the total drone exports from Thailand and is eight times higher than the procurement volume in 2024.
In 2022, Thailand exported drones worth less than $1 million, with none of them sent to Russia.
In 2025, China supplied drones to Thailand worth $186 million.
The Director-General of Thailand's Customs Department stated that the export of Chinese drones from Thailand is conducted legally, and Thai legislation does not require declaring the purpose of using drones upon import.
As Bloomberg notes, Thailand became an important supply channel last year after Western countries began taking measures against earlier routes through the UAE and Kazakhstan.
As The New York Times reported, in the first year after the full-scale war in Ukraine began, about 70 Chinese exporters sold Russia drones from 26 different brands worth over $12 million.
To compensate for the impact of sanctions imposed on Moscow by Western countries for the annexation of Crimea and the attack on Ukraine, Russian military universities are also receiving assistance. According to an investigation by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), since 2019, Chinese universities linked to the defense industry have expanded research partnerships with Russian universities, giving Moscow access to defense technologies.
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