A video released in July by Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov shows masked troops assembling Geran strike drones inside the open bed of a Changan Hunter pickup and launching one from the speeding vehicle. Months earlier, a unit of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces had already filmed strikes on other Hunters fitted out as mobile launch pads for the same type of drone.
Those pickups carry the badge now sitting behind Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal teammates in the “Stay in the game!” advertising rolled out this year.
Changan Automobile, one of China’s largest state-owned carmakers, announced a global strategic partnership with the Portuguese Football Federation at Cidade do Futebol in Lisbon on 2 June 2026. The campaign features Portugal’s senior squad in posters and clips for several Changan models.
OCCRP and Ukrainian outlet Slidstvo.Info laid out the contrast this week in a joint investigation.
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From a Lisbon ad shoot to the Russian front
In March, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces posted a Telegram video showing strikes on Changan Hunter pickups fitted with launch pads for Geran-type Russian drones. Solovyov’s July video added fresh footage from the Russian side: masked troops arming the drones and firing a Geran from the back of one of the same trucks.
The Geran is a Russian variant of an Iranian-designed loitering munition, and now one of Moscow’s main long-range strike weapons against Ukrainian military positions and civilian areas, OCCRP noted, citing analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Changan did not leave Russia after the February 2022 invasion. The OCCRP investigation lists 327 Hunter pickups imported into Russia in 2024 and another 145 in the first three months of 2025, almost all of them delivered to Changan’s wholly owned Russian subsidiary.
The vehicles were already visible on the front line a year earlier. In January 2025, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov announced that five armoured Changan pickups were being sent to what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
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“Rigorous” compliance, silence from Changan
The Portuguese Football Federation defended its agreement through its commercial office, which told the investigators the deal had passed a “rigorous” compliance process before being signed.
Ronaldo and the rest of the Portugal squad have not publicly addressed the findings. At the Lisbon launch, Changan Vice President Mi Mengdong put the campaign slogan in football language.
“In football, staying ‘in the game’ means total commitment, to every tackle, every second of concentration, and every precise pass.”
Changan did not reply to the investigators’ detailed questions. Asked about the appearance of its Hunters in Russian military footage, a company representative gave OCCRP only one line.
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“We’ve had such experience before, and it seems we had no problems.”
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