Turkey is preparing to sell at least 20 Bayraktar drones to Ukraine, according to Bloomberg.
According to the report, Baykar, an arms manufacturer based in Istanbul, has sold dozens of drones to Ukraine since 2019. Orders for at least two dozen more drones are underway.
The agency reported that the supply of drones to Ukraine had angered Moscow and strained Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they have sought to manage their interests in conflicts in Syria, Libya and the Caucasus.
According to a Kremlin statement, Putin condemned Ukraine’s “provocative” deployment of the attack drones in a phone call with Erdogan on Friday. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to take Moscow’s concern over Turkey’s “militarization” of Ukraine “as seriously as possible.”
Ukrainian military in October used a Bayraktar TB2 drone to destroy Russian-backed forces’ artillery.
Photo: defense-ua.com