The Defense Ministry of Ukraine and Turkish company Baykar Makina have signed an agreement on the construction in Ukraine of a service center for the repair and maintenance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The ministry said on its website on Monday that this was done to develop a framework agreement between the governments of Ukraine and Turkey on cooperation in the field of high technologies, aviation and space industries, which entered into force on January 23.

"Turkey's help for Ukraine during the full-scale war is certainly invaluable. Special thanks to Baykar for its contribution to building up the capacity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression. Everyone in Ukraine knows what Bayraktar is, knows your company. But we are moving forward, and it is important for us to create our own base in Ukraine for maintenance of drones. This joint project will lay the foundation for our systematic work, create jobs in Ukraine. We have reached an agreement, the center will be created in the near future," State Secretary of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine Kostiantyn Vaschenko said.

He also noted that today the policy of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is aimed at strengthening its own capabilities for repairing military equipment.

"This applies not only to drones. This also applies to heavy armored vehicles and other means of warfare. We understand that we need to develop our own infrastructure, create our own jobs, train our own personnel so that even after victory we can be as effective as possible and use the available resources to maintain the state's defense capability at the proper level," Vaschenko said.