Construction of a plant for the production of Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicles has begun in Ukraine, Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin said during a telethon, Babel reports.
“The plant began to be built in practice, not just in a memorandum. This is exactly the large Bayraktar plant that was agreed upon a few years ago, then there were shutdowns and scandals. Today, this plant is starting to be built, and we have moved on to real steps” he said.
The day before, during the Ukrainian president’s visit to Turkey, Kamyshin signed a new memorandum with the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Turkey on the development of capacities and capabilities for the production of various types of UAVs.
On June 23, the Turkish company Baykar received license permits for the production of Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı in Ukraine. The plant is due to start operating in 2025, with investments of $95.5 million.
As a reminder, talks about building a plant to produce Bayraktars in Ukraine have been going on since the beginning of the war. However, even such a well-known project faced the realities of Ukrainian corruption, as it is no secret that in Ukraine, in order to build something, you need to “sponsor” the right people, otherwise they simply won’t give you permission. And this “scheme” did not pass by Bayraktar. The scandal was resolved only under the direct patronage of the President’s Office. Unfortunately, Ukrainian officials are burying many interesting and, most importantly, profitable projects for the country’s economy. After all, Western investors lose any desire to invest in anything when they encounter Ukraine’s incomprehensible bureaucracy and schemes of officials. And the Ukrainian government pretends that the problem simply does not exist and, accordingly, does nothing at all to combat corruption and often does everything to make corruption more prevalent. This includes the closure of cases against top corrupt officials in courts, the adoption of laws that “hide” schemes and further confuse the system of permits and licenses. Especially in the construction industry.
