Russia has complained to Turkey over its sale of Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine, a high level Turkish bureaucrat said on Friday, April 8, but added the sales were by a private Turkish company and not state-to-state deals, Reuters reports.

“Russians are upset and from time to time they are complaining about the drone sales. They used to complain and they are complaining right now,” the bureaucrat said.

“But we have already given the answer … that these are private companies and these drone purchases had been done before the war as well.”

Turkey has also been selling those drones to Azerbaijan, which used them to attack civilian infrastructure and peaceful settlements during the 44-day war against Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in the fall of 2020.