On October 2, 2026, Russia’s Airborne Forces conducted their first airdrop of unmanned ground vehicles from an Il-76 military transport aircraft. Among the systems dropped from roughly 600 meters during the Center-2026 exercise was the Kurier UGV, armed with a 7.62 mm machine gun.

After landing, operators took control of the systems, and Kurier was used to provide fire support for an assault group. According to an operator with the call sign “Tatarin,” preparing the robot for a mission after landing takes three to five minutes.

Russia’s Kurier #UGV is moving beyond frontline testing.

During the Center-2026 drills, Russian airborne troops parachuted Kurier UGVs from an Il-76 and deployed them in a simulated assault.

We recently touched on the Kurier project in our investigation into #Russia’s Mangas… https://t.co/xozcHmQrQQ pic.twitter.com/coMTVDCH6Q

— InformNapalm (@InformNapalm) October 3, 2026

Kurier is no longer confined to occasional appearances at training grounds. In late October 2024, the Russian pro-war movement People’s Front [Rus.: «Народный фронт»] said more than 50 Kurier systems were already in the combat zone. In June 2025, another ten systems were delivered to Russian forces. The figures should not simply be added together: it is unclear whether the reported groups overlap or how many systems had been lost, damaged, repaired or otherwise taken out of service. The current number of Kurier systems in Russian service remains unknown.

InformNapalm previously examined this project in the first part of its investigation into the Russian Mangas heavy hexacopter.

This time, we examined documents from companies linked to the developers of this unmanned ground vehicle. The records reveal a substantial China-linked paper trail: electronics, batteries, Shenzhen-based HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., and earlier business ties between project head Zorikto Gombozhapov and Chinese manufacturers.

An important caveat: the declarations identified in this investigation do not establish that every component listed in them was installed specifically on the Kurier UGV. They show the range and scale of Chinese equipment covered by declarations filed by a company directly linked to Kurier’s developer.

NRTK KAPS and dozens of declarations for Chinese electronics in 2025–2026

The key legal entity is Moscow-based NRTK KAPS LLC [Rus.: ООО «НРТК КАПС»] — INN 7723185204, OGRN 1027739845870. Zorikto Gombozhapov [Rus.: Зорикто Гомбожапов] is the company’s general director and sole owner.

In Russia’s register of declarations of conformity, InformNapalm identified dozens of records in which NRTK KAPS is listed as the applicant and Shenzhen-based HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. as the manufacturer.

The range of products is broad. In July 2025, KAPS declared, among other items, a 230 MHz radio module, a radio modem, chargers and batteries. In 2026, the documents also list IP cameras, power supplies and other electronic equipment.

One document stands out for the quantities involved. Declaration ВП RU Д-CN.РА01.А.65868/25, dated July 30, 2025, covers a batch of 4,200 WTX-2S6 batteries and 8,400 WTX-2A2DC units — 12,600 batteries in total.

This figure needs to be interpreted carefully. A declaration of conformity is not a customs declaration or proof of actual delivery. By itself, it does not establish that all 12,600 batteries were imported into Russia, used in production or intended for Kurier.

Taken together with dozens of other records, however, it shows a substantial documentary footprint of Chinese electronics covered by declarations filed by the company behind Kurier for the Russian market.

What is HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.?

HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. is systematically listed in Russian declarations as the manufacturer. At least one specific case, however, shows why this designation should not automatically be treated as proof that HD LED is the original manufacturer of the product concerned.

In declaration ЕАЭС N RU Д-CN.РА07.В.66081/26, dated August 27, 2026, Moscow-based AXION SOFT LLC [Rus.: ООО «АКСИОН СОФТ»] is listed as the applicant. HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. is named as the manufacturer of the LCA326T-90-C2 inclinometer and the JY-ME02-CAN encoder. The JY-ME02-CAN case is particularly revealing.

The official catalog of Chinese company WitMotion includes the JY-ME02 series. The product photograph visibly carries WitMotion branding and the company’s domain name. The website shows the JYME02-485 version, so that page alone does not establish the origin of the CAN version.

There is, however, independent confirmation for the exact model. A 2025 paper in the journal Actuators used an encoder that the authors explicitly identify as “JY-ME02-CAN, WIT Motion, Shenzhen, China.”

Thus, the same JY-ME02-CAN model appears in a Russian declaration with HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. in the “manufacturer” field, while an independent technical source identifies it as a WIT Motion product from Shenzhen.

This does not prove that HD LED is merely an intermediary. Several arrangements are possible, including contract manufacturing, OEM/ODM, private-label production, consolidation or resale. The available documents are insufficient to determine the specific model of cooperation.

They do, however, provide grounds not to treat the “manufacturer: HD LED” field in Russian declarations as automatic proof that HD LED itself is the actual developer and manufacturer of every product listed.

Gombozhapov’s China ties predate the KAPS declarations

The documentary trail leading to China does not begin with the KAPS declarations of conformity.

Zorikto Gombozhapov also heads Russia-based Eychdi LLC [Rus.: ООО «ЭЙЧДИ», a transliteration of the “HD” abbreviation into Russian]. In declaration ЕАЭС N RU Д-CN.РА04.А.92764/24, dated June 6, 2024, the company is listed as the applicant for products manufactured by China’s SHENZHEN DICOLOR GROUP CO., LTD. The declaration record contains two identifiers particularly useful for further OSINT: Contract No. 11032024 dated March 11, 2024, and Invoice No. HD20240424RU01 dated April 24, 2024.

Another declaration filed by OOO Eychdi — ЕАЭС N RU Д-CN.РА07.В.32489/24, dated August 20, 2024 — lists China’s Unilumin Group Co., Ltd. as the manufacturer.

These documents do not show that Dicolor or Unilumin supplied equipment for Kurier. Their significance is different: they document Gombozhapov’s business working with Chinese electronics manufacturers before the main body of KAPS declarations examined in this investigation.

There is also a personal corporate link to China.

In 2015, Gombozhapov became one of four co-owners of Moscow-based NIHAO LLC [Rus.: ООО «НИХАО»]. Another co-owner, with the same 25% stake, was Du Tianzhu [Rus.: Ду Тяньжу]. According to Russia’s Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL), as reproduced by corporate databases, Du is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and the sole owner of POLARIS LLC [Rus.: ООО «ПОЛАРИС»]. From 2019 to 2022, he also served as the company’s director.

Du Tianzhu — a Chinese national and sole owner of POLARIS LLC, according to EGRUL. He previously held a 25% stake in NIHAO LLC alongside Zorikto Gombozhapov, who held an equal stake.

Taken together, this is not a single incidental Chinese entry in a declaration but several distinct documentary lines: the body of KAPS declarations naming HD LED, earlier transactions by another Gombozhapov company with Chinese manufacturers, and a corporate link to a Chinese national.

This is not yet a full reconstruction of the supply chain. But it is already a set of specific companies, individuals, equipment models, declaration numbers, a contract and an invoice that can be used to investigate that chain further.

Gombozhapov’s engineering links to military robotics

A separate documentary line sheds light on the engineering network around Gombozhapov. Among his recurring patent co-authors is Nurzhan Rakimzhanov [Rus.: Нуржан Ракимжанов], a lieutenant colonel who holds a Russian Candidate of Technical Sciences degree — roughly equivalent to a PhD — and specializes in military ground robotic systems.

Patent records show sustained collaboration between Rakimzhanov and Gombozhapov. They are co-authors, among others, of patent applications RU230708U1 for a platform for a multifunctional military robotic system and RU230277U1 for a generator set designed to extend the robotic system’s operating endurance. Their names also appear together on patents RU238596U1 and RU2830637C1. This confirms a sustained engineering partnership in ground robotics. At the same time, co-authorship alone does not mean that every patented solution was implemented on production Kurier UGVs.

What we established

Behind the Russian combat robot is a company that systematically files declarations of conformity covering a substantial range of Chinese electronics, with HD LED TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. listed as the manufacturer. One declaration covers 12,600 batteries. In a separate case, equipment that a Russian declaration lists as manufactured by HD LED is directly attributed by an independent technical source to another Chinese company — WIT Motion.

The documents also show earlier ties between businesses run by KAPS head Zorikto Gombozhapov and Chinese manufacturers, including specific contract and invoice numbers, as well as his corporate partnership with a Chinese national.

Kurier itself, meanwhile, continues to be integrated into Russian military operational concepts — including an airdrop from an Il-76 during the Center-2026 exercise.

Kurier was previously one of the leads that brought InformNapalm to the developers behind Mangas. The corporate records surrounding Kurier now open another line of inquiry: which Chinese companies manufacture, sell, consolidate and formally declare electronics linked to Russian military robotics developers.

The full supply chain remains unresolved. But the investigation has identified specific companies, product models, declarations, a contract and an invoice that provide specific starting points for tracing it further.

This publication was prepared by Andriy Lisitsyn especially for readers of InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community. Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0). Subscribe to InformNapalm social media pages.

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