Bayraktar drone manufacturer to build factory in Ukraine

The Turkish company Baykar plans to build a Bayraktar drone factory in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar. “Just one week ago, the government approved a bilateral agreement and sent it to parliament to be ratified — an agreement on the construction of the plant itself,” Bodnar said in an interview with RBK-Ukraina. He added that plans for the factory have been in the works since before Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, and that a site has already been chosen.

Bodnar also said that Baykar has no plans to work with the Russian government. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in July that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed interest in partnering with the company. “I spoke directly with one of the owners of this factory, and he said that not only do they have no such plans, they can’t even imagine [working with Russia],” he said. According to Bodnar, after the initial reports of the conversation surfaced, Erdoğan's press service clarified that the discussion with Putin was “half-joking.”