MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. A manufacturing plant of Turkish combat drones Bayraktar will be a subject of immediate demilitarization if it opens in Ukraine, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
"The fact of opening such facility, which will be definitely an immediate subject to the course of demilitarization, will only prolong the sufferings of Ukrainians but will in no way help to avoid the main objective of the special military operation," Peskov said speaking at a news briefing.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bondar stated on Monday that Turkish company Baykar Makina had purchased a land plot in Ukraine intending to build there a plant for the production of Bayraktar combat drones.
On July 19, the government of Ukraine passed a bill on the ratification of an agreement with Turkey on cooperation in the sphere of high technologies, the aviation and space sectors, which makes it possible to build a Bayraktar production and maintenance plant in Ukraine.
Turkey has been producing combat drones both for the needs of its armed forces and for exports in recent years. Today six countries are operators of Bayraktar TB2 combat drones: Azerbaijan, Qatar, Libya, Morocco, Poland and Ukraine. Turkish-made Bayraktar drones were employed in combat operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, Syria and Libya.
Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine
The situation at the line of engagement in Donbass escalated on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian military in recent months, which damaged civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Russia signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with their leaders. Russia recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as of the beginning of 2014.
Russian President Putin announced on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.
The DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.