Ahval
March 31, 2022

Zelensky aide meets with Turkish drone maker’s CEO in Istanbul

Mikhail Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential official who led the country’s negotiations with Russia this week in İstanbul, shared a photo on social media with Haluk Bayraktar, the chief executive officer of Turkish drone maker Baykar.

Podolyak first published a photo of the two men at a bar, then deleted it and replaced it with a picture of him and Bayraktar on a balcony in Istanbul with a sea view, Turkish media including the Bianet news website reported. The pictures were taken early Tuesday evening at the Galataport facility adjacent to the Bosporus waterway in central Istanbul.

Baykar began selling combat drones to Ukraine in 2019. Turkey has sought to downplay the transactions after Ukraine’s military started using dozens of the drones against the Russian military following February’s invasion.

Ukrainian officials involved in Tuesday’s meetings with Russian negotiators remained in Turkey for talks on ‘military-technical’ cooperation with the government, Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar is a senior official at Baykar….

“Russia’s armoured vehicles are burning perfectly in our beautiful fields. And they’ll continue to burn, as Bayraktars ideally fulfill any task – imperceptibly, frighteningly, destructively,” Podolyak said in a caption accompanying the photo. “I’ll always be grateful to the creator and father of the super-weapons. For our victory.”