(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized on Friday, during a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the use by the Ukrainian army of military drones provided by Ankara.
According to Mr. Putin, the use by the forces of Kiev of armed drones of Turkish manufacture of the Bayraktar type, which were used in particular to carry out a shooting in October against the pro-Russian separatists, is a “provocation”.
The Russian president blasted Kiev’s “destructive policy” aimed, according to him, at “undermining the Minsk agreements” signed in 2015 and intended to end the conflict in the separatist east of Ukraine, but whose political component does not has never been applied.
Mr. Poutine also underlined, during this telephone conversation, the “necessity for Kiev to abandon any attempt of bellicose activities” in the east of Ukraine, according to a statement of the Kremlin.
These remarks come at the height of tensions between Russia and Ukraine, while Moscow is accused of having massed troops at the border for a possible offensive. The Kremlin denies any plan in this direction and in return accuses Kiev of preparing a “military adventure” against the separatists in the East.
The Ukrainian army had used a Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone at the end of October to strike a Howitzer D-30 cannon of the pro-Russian rebels.
This shot had been criticized by Russia as well as by France and Germany, mediators of the peace process in eastern Ukraine.
The use of combat drones in some recent conflicts, such as the one between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020, had tipped the balance of power.
Ukraine has been fighting pro-Russian separatists since 2014 in the east of the country, in a war that has left 13,000 dead.