Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has ratified the agreement on Turkey-Ukraine cooperation in the field of high technologies, aviation, and space industries, the Member of Parliament Oleksii Honcharenko said on Dec. 13. The document will allow the construction of a factory in Ukraine to produce Turkish Bayraktar drones.
Two countries’ presidents had signed the agreement on Feb. 3 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started. The Cabinet of Ministers sent a bill to the Parliament to ratify the agreement in July.
According to Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, the drones produced at the plant will be equipped with Ukrainian-made engines, and a training center for Ukrainian pilots on operating Bayraktar drones will be created.
Haluk Bayraktar, the CEO of the Turkish company Baykar, producing Bayraktar drones, told BBC on Aug. 26 that they “would never” supply drones to Russia and pledged their support for Ukraine.
The manufacturer had previously provided Bayraktars for free to several fundraisers in Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine after they raised money to buy the drones for the Ukrainian army.
Bayraktar is a Turkish strike operational-tactical medium-altitude drone with a long flight duration, which Turkey has been supplying to Ukraine for the past few years.
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