Baykar Plans To Build Bayraktar Military Drone Factory In Ukraine: Kremlin Threatened To Be Demilitarized Target, Eyes Russian President Putin

Illustration of drone TB2 Ukrainian besutan Turkey. (Wikimedia Commons/Minister of Defense of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - The plan of a Turkish drone manufacturer to open a factory in Ukraine has received a firm response from the Kremlin, although the Turkish president previously expressed interest from the Russian leader.

Turkish drone king Baykar has purchased a plot of land in Ukraine for the production of the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicle (UCAV), Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said, Ukrainian media reported.

Recently, the government approved a bilateral agreement on the construction of the Bayraktar plant in Ukraine, sending it to parliament for ratification. Bodnar confirmed this in an interview for the Ukrainian news agency RBC Ukraine.

Baykar has purchased a plot of land in Ukraine, developed the plant project itself and is ready to implement it to the end, the ambassador said.

"And that (the commitment to start the construction of a factory in Ukraine) is not only political, but also practical, because most of the models that will be produced at this plant will have components of Ukrainian production," explained Bodnar, citing the Daily Sabah on August 8.

Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone. (Wikimedia Commons/Army.com.ua)

Engines, wheels or other parts of Ukrainian production could be used in the production of the drones, according to the ambassador.

"Despite the war, our companies continue to fulfill their obligations," he said, though not as before the war. Their commitment, continued Bodnar, "shows how responsible we are as partners."

Some time ago, Bayrakar said that they would establish a joint training and maintenance center for Turkish UCAVs in Ukraine.

The memorandum is a step towards joint production of Ukrainian-Turkish drones, a statement on President Volodymyr Zelensky's website said last year.

In response to the plan, the Kremlin confirmed that a Turkish-owned drone factory would be a target for the demilitarization of the Russian army, if it were set up on Ukrainian territory.

Illustration of a Turkish drone builder. (Source: Twitter/Selçuk Bayraktar)

"The fact that the opening of such a facility, which will inevitably become an immediate target for demilitarization, will only prolong the suffering of Ukrainian citizens but will in no way help to avoid the main objective of special military operations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, quoted by TASS.

Earlier, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) expressed interest in cooperating with Turkey on drone development. Interestingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan his country is interested in working with Baykar. This was reported and discussed at a meeting of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) last month.

The TB2 has been hugely popular in Ukraine, where it helped destroy Russian artillery systems and armored vehicles. The Ukrainian fighters even made an expletive hit song mocking Russian troops, inserting the lyrics "Bayraktar, Bayraktar."

So far, Ukraine has purchased more than 20 Bayraktar TB2 armed drones from Baykar in recent years and ordered another 16 on January 27. The batch was shipped in early March.

Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone. (Wikimedia Commons/Bayhaluk)

Recently, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar, answering CNN International's question about whether they would sell Bayraktar TB2 to Russia, said they haven't supplied anything to Russia and "they haven't done anything like that."

"We support Ukraine's struggle for independence and sovereignty," he said.

He added that the Bayraktar TB2 drone had become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance and they were proud to be a part of this.

To note, the Bayraktar TB2 drone, which has also been used in conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Karabakh, is now spearheading Turkey's global defense export commodity which is in demand by many countries.

To date, six countries have operationalized the Bayraktar TB2 combat drone besides Turkey, namely Azerbaijan, Qatar, Libya, Morocco, Poland and Ukraine.