Taras Chmut, a Ukrainian defense specialist, says the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 armed drones saved the country when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“I think if it wasn’t for them [TB2 drones], in the first months of the war, I don’t think we would have been able to withstand,” Chmut told the news agency Militarnyi.
Chmut heads a non-governmental organization called Come Back Alive that has raised tens of millions of dollars of crowdfunding to supply equipment to the military, including aerial drones. He added that Bayraktar TB2 drones were a strategic weapon for Kyiv at the same level as Tochka-U missile systems.
The expert said that TB2s “knocked out” the logistics, destroyed refueling trucks, and suppressed enemy air defense, which allowed Ukrainian aviation to strike the Russian targets.
Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov also confirmed that Turkish drones were a reliable weapon in the hands of the military.
“It was thanks to Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones that our military had the opportunity to effectively conduct aerial reconnaissance, timely expose the actions of the enemy and simultaneously hit its objects,” Gromov said.
The senior officer added that at the beginning of the war, Turkish drones were significant under the conditions of the rapid advance of the Russian occupying forces through the territory of Ukraine.
The Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB2 is seen as pivotal in conflicts ranging from Karabakh to Ukraine. People in several countries started fundraising campaigns to buy more useful drones for Ukraine amid its war to fight back against Russian forces.
