The general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine announced on Tuesday that it had deployed for the first time a new drone against artillery used by Russian-supplied rebels in Donbas.
The general staff announced on Facebook that separatists in Donbas had used heavy artillery in violation of a ceasefire. The rebels fired the artillery on Tuesday afternoon, leaving one Ukrainian soldier dead and at least one injured.
The Ukrainian military claimed it warned the rebels against using the artillery, but they did not comply. This led to Ukraine deploying a Bayraktar TB2 drone, acquired from Turkey. The general staff said the drone did not cross the border and destroyed one rebel gun using a bomb. Following this, the shelling stopped. The general staff informed the weapon destroyed was a D-30 howitzer, a 122mm towed gun.
The Kremlin took note of the development on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Reuters as saying Russia's “fears about Turkey’s decision to sell strike drones to Ukraine were being realised... Turkish drones risked destabilising the situation in eastern Ukraine."
The Bayraktar TB2 is a small-sized medium altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drone. According to its manufacturer, Baykar, the Bayraktar TB2 has a maximum take-off weight of 700kg and can stay airborne for up to 27 hours. In addition to surveillance missions, the Bayraktar TB2 can attack ground targets using small missiles and guided bombs.
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The Bayraktar TB2 has seen extensive use in Turkish operations in Libya and Syria and with the Azerbaijan military in its war against Armenia last year. In all these conflicts, Turkish media claimed the Bayraktar TB2 was used to destroy Russian air-defence systems and armour. The Bayraktar TB2 has been touted as a symbol of the success of Turkey's military drone programme,
The Bayraktar TB2 is in service with multiple nations including Turkey, Qatar, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. In May, Poland became the first NATO member to order drones from Turkey, when it signed up to buy the Bayraktar TB2.