Turkey's drone shipments to Ukraine are not military aid but rather private sales, a deputy Turkish foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday, underscoring Ankara's effort to avoid offending Moscow amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
NATO member Turkey, which shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine and has good ties with both, has criticised the invasion as unacceptable but avoided the harsher rhetoric of other alliance members and opposes their use of sanctions.
Turkey cooperates closely with Russia in energy, trade and defence. It has also sold Bayraktar TB-2 drones to Kyiv and signed a deal to co-produce more during a visit there last month by President Tayyip Erdogan, angering Moscow.
