DJI Drone maker Announces Suspension of Sales in Russia and Ukraine

Popular Drone maker Firm DJI announces suspension of sales in Russia and Ukraine. In light of the current hostilities, DJI has temporarily suspended sales and all business activities in Russia as well as Ukraine.

Announcing Suspension of Sales

According to reports, the drone maker becomes the first major Chinese company to announce suspension of sales in Russia after it started invading Ukraine in February 2022. Unlike its peers in the West, most Chinese companies have chosen to continue their operations in the country. A DJI spokesperson said that the company is not making a statement about its principles. The spokesperson added: “DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat.”

The suspension of sales comes a month after Ukrainian politician Mykhailo Fedorov called on DJI to stop selling its products in Russia. The country’s Minister of Digital Transformation posted an open letter for the drone maker on Twitter that says Russia is using DJI products to navigate its missiles “to kill civilians.” It also says Russia is using an extended version of DJI’s AeroScope drone detection platform to gather flight information.

Drone Maker DJI Withdrawing Sales from Russia

In addition, MediaMarkt, a German chain of stores selling electronics across Europe, removed DJI’s products from its shelves after receiving information from various sources that the Russian army is using products and data from the Chinese drone supplier DJI for military activities in Ukraine. DJI denied that it was actively supporting the Russian military not just by providing hardware, but also by providing flight data and called the accusations utterly false.

A few days ago, DJI issued a statement to condemn the use of its products to cause harm. It said it does not market or sell its products for military use and that its distributors have all agreed not to sell products to customers who’ll clearly use them for military purposes. “We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work,” the company wrote.