Chinese firms in Ukraine strive to ensure personnel, project safety

Chinese citizens evacuated from Ukraine arrive at Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, March 6, 2022.Photo:Xinhua

Chinese companies in Ukraine are striving to ensure the safety of their employees as well as their projects with corresponding measures in place, amid a fresh warning from the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine on Monday about the deteriorating situation in the country.

With the tense situation in Ukraine continuing to deteriorate, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine would like to remind the Chinese compatriots still in Ukraine to leave Ukraine as soon as possible, it said, noting that "the vast majority" of Chinese nationals in Ukraine have been evacuated.

An employee at a major Chinese energy infrastructure company told the Global Times on Monday that the company had evacuated all of its employees in Ukraine, with the majority now in Romania, from where they are expected to return to China on a chartered flight soon.

"Our entire project in the country has been suspended," the company's employee said on the condition of anonymity. But facilities cannot be "relocated," and combined with all the other possible costs, the potential losses could be in the hundreds of millions of yuan, the employee said.

A source with a state-owned energy company told the Global Times on Monday that out of consideration for the safety of its employees and its business operations, it is no longer publically discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, an employee with the security department of China Longyuan Power Group, a subsidiary of China Energy, said on Monday that all of the company's employees are safe and projects in Ukraine are running undisrupted.

"Production is so far normal, and because the local power grid is still carrying out normal transmission and distribution, the power plant is also producing electricity normally," the employee said.

The employee declined to share further information, citing safety concerns.

Lian Weiliang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency, said on Monday that China will continued to push forward the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with global partners, including Russia and Ukraine.

At a press conference, Lian noted that both Russia and Ukraine are participants in the development of the BRI and China expects all parties to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue and keep the impact on the world economy at the minimum.