Chinese drone maker DJI has confirmed to The Verge that it is halting all shipments of its products to Russia and Ukraine and will no longer provide aftersales support due to concerns that its products will be used for combat purposes during the Russian invasion.
It is the first concrete measure taken by China’s DJI to address the war after Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Federov accused the company of helping Russia to kill Ukrainian civilians in a roundabout way (by using AeroScope drone detection system from DJI used to attack Ukrainian pilots on the ground, something DJI apparently never expected). Both countries use DJI drones for reconnaissance, and we’ve seen reports of Ukraine turning some of them into makeshift weapons.
In late March, DJI told The Verge that it hadn’t stopped and had no intention of stopping sales in Russia or Ukraine, despite hundreds of other companies pulling out of Russia in protest. “For 15 years, DJI has tried our best to stay out of geopolitics,” spokesman Adam Lisberg told us.
But Reuters reported today that DJI has decided to halt all sales to both countries and maintain a neutral stance, and while DJI is not actually responsible for sales in those regions (existing products may continue to be sold), the company confirms these shipments and support is discontinued. That also wouldn’t stop Russia or Ukraine from using existing AeroScope drone trackers, but there’s a chance DJI will not reauthorize AeroScope receivers whose license expires during this period.
“DJI took this action not to make a statement about any country, but to make a statement about our principles. DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in those countries to ensure no one uses our drones in combat,” Lisberg said today.
Lisberg says the company has already asked retailers not to sell to customers who would use drones for combat purposes – but they’ve seen products make it to the war zone anyway, so this is an extra step. He also says DJI understands that preventing the use of drones for military purposes is not a foolproof way – I want to reiterate that DJI does not control sales in these countries – and that restricting supplies and support Drone pilots could be penalized in both countries using them for benign purposes.
“But we have to do something because we don’t like it when someone uses our products to hurt people,” says Lisberg.
DJI’s statement on its newsroom page doesn’t go nearly as far, simply saying that DJI is “internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions” and that it is suspending business in Russia and Ukraine “pending the current review.” .
We don’t have enough data to know if this move could harm one side more than the other, but I’d like to point out that Ukraine is the one that’s publicly raising funds to defend itself with these inexpensive consumer DJI drones able to afford in their country.
This week, the Biden administration asked Congress to allow more agencies access to drone-tracking technology, including state and local police.