KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2022) Ukraine will begin the construction of a plant for the production of Bayraktar drones in early summer, with the first Ukrainian-made drones expected to be rolled out within a year, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Thursday.
Earlier in February, Kiev and Ankara signed an agreement expanding the production of Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicles in Ukraine.
"According to my information, we will begin construction of the plant in early summer, and it will be built quite quickly. I expect that they will appear within a year. The amount that we have is already good, and soon we will get even more in accordance with the contract signed last year, and this will be good enough even before the construction of the plant," Reznikov said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
Since 2014, NATO countries have supplied Ukraine with weapons and trained its military in breach of the Minsk agreements and peace settlement in Donbas. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Estonia have supplied Kiev with weapons worth billions of US Dollars.
Washington has provided Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank missiles, patrol boats, sniper rifles and counter-battery radar systems. London delivers NLAW anti-tank missile systems, Turkey supplies Kiev with Bayraktar TB2 attack drones. In addition, Ukraine and the UK have signed a memorandum providing for joint design and construction of warships, as well as two bases for the Ukrainian navy.
Moscow says it believes the arms supplies to Ukraine would create a temptation for Kiev to switch to the forceful method of settlement of the conflict in Donbas, which is unacceptable.
