Manufacturer Bayraktar ruled out the supply of drones to Russia

The Turkish company Baykar does not consider it possible to supply its Bayraktar combat unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia, the company’s CEO Haluk Bayraktar said in an interview with the BBC Russian service.

“Money and material resources have never been the goal in our business. Our friendship and cooperation with Ukraine has been going on for many years. Therefore, no matter how much money they offer us, to be honest, there can be no question of handing it over to them in this situation,” Bayraktar said.

According to the entrepreneur, his company is “completely on the side of Ukraine” and “nothing will overshadow cooperation with it, no matter what amount is offered.”

At the end of July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaredthat Russia wants to cooperate with drone manufacturer Bayraktar. “[Президент России Владимир] Putin told me that he wants to work with Bayraktar,” Erdogan said at the time at a closed meeting of the central executive committee of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

Now Turkish Baykar drones are used in combat operations as part of a special operation by Ukraine. The country began purchasing Bayraktar TB2 drones back in 2019. At the end of September 2021, Ukraine and the drone manufacturer Bayraktar signed a memorandum on the construction of a joint center for maintenance and modernization of devices in the Kyiv region.

The Turkish company Baykar Makina previously bought a land plot in Ukraine for the construction of a plant for the production of Bayraktar UAVs. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov noted that the Bayraktar plant in Ukraine would be subject to demilitarization if it was built. The Kremlin spokesman also stressed that the construction of such a plant would only “prolong the suffering of Ukrainians” and would not hinder the achievement of the goals of the special operation.

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