China’s DJI drones Assisted Russia in Invading Ukraine

On August 10th, a Russian general praised the important role the Chinese quadcopter drones made in the Russo-Ukrainian War. The praise of the Chinese drone was made in a report titled, Other People’s War: A New Model. The general said the drones completely solved the problems of artillery reconnaissance, target instruction and firepower correction for the Russian army. The general also praised the Mavic quadcopter drone made by DJI, a Chinese company. The Russian ambassador to China forwarded the report on the Chinese DJI for having become a true symbol of modern warfare.

On August 13th, a spokesperson for the DJI company clarified that all DJI products are designed for civilian purposes and do not support all military applications. On March 16th, shortly after the invasion of the Ukraine, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister publicly accused DJI of aiding Russia on social media. As early as 2017, the United States suspected that DJI drones had risks of military use, such as collecting sensitive information such as geographic, audio and video. In 2020, the US Government officially added DJI to the sanctions list. Some people have suggested Russia is negotiating peace with the Ukraine, and possibly Russia would like to hand the Ukrainian situation over to China. The same people seem to consider the Chinese Government may be unable to satisfactorily come to grips with the Ukrainian/Russian problem.