“Without China’s support, Putin’s war machine comes to a halt,” US Senator Lindsay Graham tweeted, pointing to the high-tech undertone of the Ukrainian war. The rapid ascent of Russia’s drone capability, spearheaded particularly by Aero-HIT, is now a signature feature of the modern battlefield and a global sanctions-busting and border-jumping study.
Aero-HIT, a little-known maker near the airport of Khabarovsk, has emerged as one of the most productive drone makers in Russia with government support and technical advice from Chinese collaborators. It plans to produce 10,000 drones per month in 2025-a number that eclipses most Western and Ukrainian production. Based on documents seen by Bloomberg and confirmed by internal company reports, this boom is fueled by an advanced collaboration with Chinese suppliers and engineers, even as Beijing and Autel Robotics issued official denials.
Aero-HIT’s technical showpiece is the Veles FPV drone, a platform developed from the civilian Autel EVO Max 4T. Originally intended for industrial and rescue applications, the EVO Max 4T comes with a suite of premium sensors including a 48MP wide camera, 8K video, thermal imaging, and a laser rangefinder. Its real battlefield value, however, lies in its resilience to electronic warfare, a trait that has proven decisive in Ukraine’s contested airspace. Aero-HIT’s engineers, in collaboration with Autel specialists since early 2023, have adapted the drone’s firmware and communications systems for military use, making it harder to jam or spoof.
The magnitude of this enterprise is impressive. Internal letters indicate that Aero-HIT plans an annual production level of 30,000 drones, costing 650,000 rubles each around $8,300. Orders from Russia’s Ministry of Defense have already reached into the thousands; Veles drones were just ordered in March 2024 in the amount of 5,000 units. Production at the Khabarovsk facility was increased in late 2023 from 200-300 units per month and aims to be industrial in size, growing further.
This has not eluded the attention of Western officials. The US Treasury in 2023 sanctioned Aero-HIT for its drones being utilized in the delivery of strikes against Ukrainian targets, specifically in the Kherson area. Nevertheless, this has not yet sanctions have done little to slow the flow of technology. In order to veil procurement, Russia developed complex logistics channels and cover companies. Companies actually involved in agriculture, seafood shipping, or airline catering like Aeromar-DV and Renovatsio-Invest have been used as middlemen, and it is increasingly hard for Western regulators to follow shipments of dual-use parts.
The pipeline of engineers runs deep into China’s research community and industrial base. The Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), a university with strong ties to the Chinese military and subject to US sanctions, has been central to all of this. Following a visit by a Russian delegation visited HIT and drone companies in May 2023, collaboration grew stronger, with the project gaining priority status from Yury Trutnev, Putin’s representative to the Far East. Customs simplification and tax relief on foreign parts subsequently further sped up the production.
In spite of claims to the contrary, there is growing evidence of Chinese suppliers’ involvement. Ukrainian officials have salvaged Chinese-built drone components from Russian UAVs shot down, and President Zelenskyy pointed out in May 2025 that China had suspended drone exports to Ukraine but not to Russia. Ukraine’s sanctions policy advisor Vladyslav Vlasiuk said, Parts from these Chinese suppliers were recovered from drones shot down over Kyiv.
The battlefield implications are profound. The systematic, monumental scientific projects of the joint Russian-Iranian-Chinese engineering teams are reshaping the technological balance. Maria Berlinska, head of Ukraine’s Air Intelligence Support Center, warned that Russia’s ability to launch hundreds of drones in a single night is now a reality, and the technological gap is widening.
The story of Aero-HIT and its Chinese partners, in the midst of a long conflict, sheds light on the changing face of defense procurement, sanctions evasion, and global competition for technological superiority in contemporary wars.
