(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday met with the head of Turkish defence firm Baykar and said the company would set up a factory in Ukraine to build unmanned aerial vehicles.
Baykar’s Bayraktar TB2 drone has been hugely popular in Ukraine, where it helped destroy many Russian artillery systems and armoured vehicles.
“We discussed the details of the construction of the Baykar factory in Ukraine and the production of new goods using Ukrainian components,” Zelenskiy said in an online post after meeting Baykar Chief Executive Haluk Bayraktar in Kyiv.
A video posted online showed Zelenskiy giving Bayraktar the Ukrainian Order of Merit. In return, Zelenskiy received a traditional embroidered Ukrainian shirt featuring a drone.
Russia has previously complained to Turkey over its sale of the drones to Ukraine.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
