Chinese drone firm DJI suspends business in Russia, Ukraine

Beijing [China], April 27 : DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer, has announced it is temporarily suspending its operations in Russia and Ukraine.
"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 Shenzhen-headquartered company said in a statement.
"We are engaging with customers, partners and other stakeholders regarding the temporary suspension of business operations in the affected territories," it added.
The action is a rare example of a Chinese firm suspending business in response to the war in Ukraine.
Adam Lisberg, DJI's director of corporate communications for North America, said the company had taken the 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 these countries in order to help ensure no one uses our drones in combat," Lisberg told Al Jazeera.
This announcement comes after the company last month denied claims it had been leaking Ukrainian military information to Russia.
Last week, DJI had said that they "only ever made products for civilian use and that they are not designed for military applications."
"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 said in a statement.
Earlier, DJI was sanctioned by the US for posing national security risks and supplying drones used to monitor ethnic minority Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province.