The Kremlin has denied a report that China's military secretly trained around 200 Russian soldiers late last year and that some of them went on to fight in Ukraine.

A July 2025 Russian-Chinese agreement, reviewed by the Reuters news agency, said about 200 Russian troops would train at military facilities in places including Beijing and the eastern city of Nanjing.

The agreement also said that hundreds of Chinese troops would train at military facilities in Russia, Reuters said.

Asked about the report today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "A huge amount of false information is published by newspapers both in Europe and the US.

"This is a problem we face, and such false information should be taken with a grain of salt."

Beijing has declared itself neutral in the Ukraine conflict and has tried to portray itself as a peace broker.

Russia revealed today that President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine when they met in China this week.