The US has sanctioned a Chinese company for allegedly providing satellite imagery of Ukraine to support the combat operations of the mercenary Wagner Group for Russia.
The Treasury Department has imposed restrictions on 16 entities, including Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute.
Spacety China, as it is also known, has offices in Beijing and Luxembourg.
Wagner provides thousands of fighters to Russia in the Ukraine war.
Spacety The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement on Thursday that China had provided synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images of locations in Ukraine to Terra Tech, a Russian-based technology firm.
“These images were collected to support Wagner combat operations in Ukraine,” it said. Spacety’s Luxembourg-based subsidiary has also been sanctioned by the department.
Under the sanctions, no property or interests in the United States may be transferred, paid for, or exported to the targeted entities.
China has not yet responded to the move.
China, a close ally of Russia, has attempted to portray itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict. The US and its allies have chastised it for failing to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.