Fri 05 November 2021:
Ukraine intends to buy more Turkish-made Bayraktar combat drones, according to Serhiy Shaptala, the Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff.
The Ukrainian military began using the Bayraktar strike drone in the eastern Donbas region last week, according to the General Staff.
The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that the use of a drone in Donbas did not violate the Minsk agreements, and that all protocols were followed.
“Our state is purchasing Bayraktar (drones). We have some on duty, we will further increase their number,” Shaptala told the 1+1 broadcaster on late Thursday.
He went on to say that the recent usage of a Bayraktar drone in Donbas was in response to Donbas forces opening fire.
Don’t blame us
On Wednesday, the Kremlin said the drones risked having a destabilising impact in eastern Ukraine, after Kyiv deployed a Bayraktar TB2 drone to hit a position controlled by Russian-backed separatists there.
“If a state is buying these from us, that is no longer a Turkish product,” Cavusoglu told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20 summit in Rome late on Saturday.
“Perhaps Turkey has produced it, but it belongs to Ukraine. Turkey cannot be blamed for this,” he was cited as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency, also calling on Ukraine to stop referencing Turkey when speaking of the drones.
Ukraine, which gets military backing from NATO countries, struck a deal with Ankara to produce the drones at a factory near Kyiv.
The deal had upset Russia, which has close cooperation with Ankara over conflicts in Syria, Libya, and Nagorno-Karabakh despite backing opposing sides, as well as positive ties in the energy sector.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
