The Wall Street Journal quoted the President of Turkiye’s Defense Industry Agency Ismail Demir as saying that his country is “much more careful” nowadays when it comes to selling drones to Kiev. According to him, “Turkiye is the only country I guess that can give a call to both parties and call them to the peace table. How can you do this if you send tens of thousands of weapons to one side?” His policy announcement coincides with the US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) narrative on the conflict decisively shifting from “victory porn” celebrating Kiev’s so-called “military successes” to the reality that NATO’s proxy against Russia is massively outgunned as Moscow steadily makes progress in Donbass.

There’s speculation that the EU’s “Big Three” – France, Germany, and Italy – might have floated a ceasefire proposal during their Prime Ministers’ visit to Kiev last week that preceded former US President Trump lashing out at unnamed European countries for doing much less than his own when it comes to militarily assisting that former Soviet Republic. The tide of the Ukrainian Conflict hasn’t turned since it was always in Russia’s favor but the MSM lied about it until it became impossible to do so without maximally discrediting their cause, hence the narrative reversal of recent weeks. Faced with this reality and not wanting to go down with a sinking ship, Turkiye wisely decided to change its tune too.

It would be an utter embarrassment for that rising Great Power’s military-industrial complex if further exports of its world-renowned armed drones didn’t result in Kiev emerging victorious after Ankara already has a track record of its regional partners in Azerbaijan and Libya winning their respective wars with the assistance of its wares. It’s indeed true that Turkiye should also be mindful of Russia’s interests, both due to Ankara’s irreplaceable role thus far in hosting peace talks between Moscow and Kiev but also for pragmatic reasons related to responsibly regulating their rivalry, but the reason why this stance is now being publicized is probably due to the emerging undeniable reality in Donbass.

It’s one thing for Turkiye to go along with Kiev giving its drones partial credit for Russia’s supposed “defeat” in the so-called “Battle for Kiev” that was in reality just a distraction this entire time and another entirely for its partner to potentially agree to the “Big Three’s” speculative ceasefire sometime in the future that results in it ceding further territory to Moscow while still actively relying on Ankara’s drones to win. The first-mentioned can be spun as enough of a success in the public sphere so as to not raise doubts about its drones’ alleged “game-changing” impact on foreign conflicts while the second would contradict that newfound myth to the detriment of Turkiye’s military-industrial complex.

By relying on the pretext of pragmatically giving off a more convincing aura of neutrality in order to hopefully broker peace between the conflicting parties, Ankara appears to be covering up for its unstated concern that Kiev can’t win against Moscow, which the entire world is increasingly beginning to realize as well as evidenced by the decisive shift in the “official narrative” in recent weeks. Nevertheless, this implied policy change didn’t have to be publicized like Demir just did, which he might have intended to serve the dual goals of signaling to the international community just how serious the situation has become as well as to wink at his country’s much closer Russian strategic partner.