DJI suspends doing business in Russia and Ukraine amid criticism

By Jim Magill

In response to criticism that its drones are being used in the war between Russia and Ukraine, DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer, said it would temporarily suspend all its business in both countries.

“DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine,” the company said in a statement released Tuesday.

The decision comes after weeks of pressure on the China-based company to cease supplying drones to Russia. It is widely believed that both sides in the war have used DJI products in support of their ongoing battle with one another. DJI has maintained that its drones are designed for civilian use and are not appropriate to be used as weapons.

“DJI has taken this action not to make a statement about any country, but to make a statement about our principles,” Adam Lisberg, a New York-based DJI spokesman, said in an email statement. “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.”

Earlier this month, DJI had released a statement reiterating its policy against the use of its products in warfare. “We absolutely deplore any use of our products to cause harm. DJI has only ever made products for civilian use; they are not designed for military applications. Specifically:

• DJI does not market or sell our products for military use.
• DJI does not provide after-sales services for products that have been identified as being used for military purposes.
• DJI has unequivocally opposed attempts to attach weapons to our products.
• DJI has refused to customize or enable modifications that would enable our products for military use.”

Almost since the outset of the war, Ukraine and its allies have urged DJI to join other companies around the world in boycotting the sale of its products in Russia.

In a tweet last month, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Myhailo Federov said that Russian troops were using DJI drones to target their missiles. He said that in the first three weeks of the war, Russian troops had already killed 100 children in this way. “Block your products that are helping Russia to kill the Ukrainians!” Federov said.

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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.