It’s hard to imagine that amid the ongoing conflict, Ukraine has emerged as an unexpected bright spot for China’s foreign trade.
Latest data from the General Administration of Customs of China shows that in 2025, the total value of China’s exports to Ukraine reached $5.04 billion, a year-on-year increase of 36.1%. Figures from Kyiv Customs paint an even more straightforward picture: Ukraine’s total imports from China soared to $19.2 billion last year.
What does this number mean? It far surpasses Poland ($7.9 billion) and Germany ($6.6 billion), cementing China’s position as Ukraine’s largest source of imports.
The discrepancy in customs data stems from different methods of determining the country of origin.
Slawomir Matuszak, a senior researcher at the Warsaw-based Oriental Research Center and an expert on Ukraine, points out that for example, Chinese products imported into Ukraine via Poland are still classified as Chinese imports by Kyiv Customs.
Against this desperate backdrop, solar panels and storage batteries stand out as prime examples of the growing trade between China and Ukraine, and the surging local demand for Chinese goods.
In other words, the $19.2 billion figure reflects the genuine consumer demand for “Made in China” in this Eastern European country.
The business logic in wartime is often simple and brutal.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post’s Siqi, Alex Cheong, CEO of Meest China, said, “Demand for solar panels and batteries has skyrocketed recently, mainly due to the severe power shortage, which has become particularly acute over the past two months.” Meest China specializes in logistics for shipping Chinese goods to Ukraine.
According to colleagues who work in Ukraine year-round, many residents only have access to electricity for two to four hours a day.
“We shipped a full container of power banks by sea in October, and they sold out as soon as they arrived.”
Winter has always been a peak period for electricity consumption, even in peacetime. But since the outbreak of the war, demand for Chinese solar panels and batteries has spiked every time temperatures plummet – a result of the power shortage caused by the conflict, exacerbated by the cold weather, driving demand even higher.
Alex stated that business has been booming since 2024, with sales volume rising by 30% to 50% compared to pre-2022 figures, mainly fueled by surging demand in Ukraine. Hot-selling products like power banks sell out in no time, he added.
“We sent a full container of power banks by sea in October, and they were gone as soon as they landed, all because of the unstable power supply.”
Benefiting from this boom, Chinese enterprises in related industries are flocking to the Ukrainian market.
Chinese Enterprises’ Keen Market Instinct
A senior executive at a solar panel manufacturer based in eastern Shandong Province said the company established a branch in Ukraine last September to better serve local customers and tap into market potential.
The firm began planning to set up an office in Ukraine in 2024, having scented the business opportunity. According to an anonymous senior executive, the company can ship products either from China or directly export them from neighboring Romania, where it also operates a factory.
This is a trade migration driven by power scarcity.
When a resident in Kyiv lights up a Chinese-made solar lamp during power outages, when the beep of a power bank echoes in a basement in Kharkiv – these small, tangible moments add up to the $19.2 billion customs figure.
Life needs electricity. And that electricity travels across mountains and seas, from Chinese production lines to the winter nights of Ukraine.
