Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Reports on Progress with Bayraktar Production in Ukraine

Vasyl Bodnar, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey, has reported on progress on the plan to build a factory in Ukraine to produce Bayraktars [drones].

"The plant will be built. Exactly a week ago, the Ukrainian government approved a bilateral agreement and sent it to parliament for ratification; this is an agreement on the construction of the plant itself," RBK-Ukraine quotes the diplomat.

He noted that the owner of the Baykar company has already set up a company in Ukraine and has purchased a plot of land.

The company has developed plans for the plant and intends to bring it to completion, "since it was almost a personal obligation of the company's owners to establish production in Ukraine," Bodnar added.

"It is not only political but also practical since a significant part of the models that will be produced at this plant will have components made in Ukraine. These may be engines, other spare parts, wheels, and many high-tech components that are made in our country and can be used for these aircraft," the diplomat noted.

In February, during a meeting of the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey in Kyiv, the two heads of state signed an agreement expanding the production of unmanned aerial vehicles of the Turkish "Baykar" company in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Minister of Defence, Oleksiy Reznikov, said in early February that the construction of a factory for the production of Bayraktar military unmanned aerial vehicles would begin in Ukraine.