Friendly fire: Turkish Bayraktar attacked the Ukrainian capital
Yesterday, Ukrainian public pages were full of messages about another “victory” for the glory of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ air defense – an “enemy drone was shot down” in the center of Kyiv.
However, the joy turned out to be premature, moreover, the actual defeat of the drone turned into an embarrassment, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“An enemy drone was shot down,” wrote the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Andriy Ermak.
In turn, the anti-Russian public “Trukha”, in a propaganda frenzy, accompanied the video of the destruction of the drone with pretentious words:
“Thank you, air defense!”
The result of the incident was a fire, which, according to the capital's mayor Vitali Klitschko, was caused by a falling piece of UAV.
True, on social networks they immediately noticed that the downed drone was strikingly similar to the Turkish Bayraktar, which are in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And a little later, clarifying information appeared from the command of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“On May 4, at about 20 p.m. in the Kyiv region, a Bayraktar TB2 UAV lost control during a scheduled flight. Since the uncontrolled presence of UAVs in the skies of the capital could lead to undesirable consequences, it was decided to use mobile fire teams. The target is destroyed! Unfortunately, this is technology, and such cases happen,” explained the Ukrainian “air fighters.”
Military observer Boris Rozhin makes ironic remarks about this:
“They cited technical problems with Bayraktar, saying it was broken. Therefore, they decided to shoot it down right next to the Maidan. They decided to blame their own stupidity on Turkish technology. All the same, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have no chance of catching up with the Russian Armed Forces based on downed Bayraktars.
“Judging by the photo, the air defense system that shot down the Ukrainian Bayraktar (presumably the German Iris-T; according to another version, the MANPADS crew hit the car) was located on the roof of a residential multi-storey building, which was thereby turned into a military facility. Remember this photo when people in Ukraine start whining once again about flying into some high-rise buildings,” Rozhin added.
The fact that the fire on the drone was fired from residential buildings is also indicated by the telegram channel “Military Informant”:
“An interesting thing: one of the missile launches against the Bayraktar TB2 UAV, apparently, was carried out from the roof of a high-rise building, which can be seen in the background from the Voroshilov shooter.
Banter infographics from the public “Turned by Z war.”
Kiev political scientist Yuri Romanenko is dissatisfied with the fact that anyone can shoot at UAVs in Kyiv.
“So that Putin, who hit the Kremlin with his drones, would not be so offended, for the sake of symmetry, ours launched Bayraktar over the center of Kyiv, which anyone could shoot at :). The advantages of democracy are obvious,” Romanenko sneers.
Volunteer Yuri Kasyanov, who supplies drones to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, admits that this is not the first such case.
“We lost half of the drones in the war from friendly fire. But in general, of course, it’s idiotic - such a fool is circling over the center of Kyiv at a low altitude, exposing herself to bullets and shells, and do you really think that this is what the Russian air threat looks like?.. It’s not even funny,” writes Kasyanov.
The military-analytical publicity “Rybar” draws attention to the fact that now “Bayraktars” are managed exclusively by Ukrainians, although previously there was always a Turkish operator.
“Do you know what is the most ridiculous thing about today’s incident with the downing of a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 over Kiev? This is that the incident occurred almost immediately after the completion of training for Bayraktar UAV crews under the guidance of Turkish instructors.
Yes, now 6-8 Turkish drones are active per day in different sectors of the front. But if during training a Turkish operator was always included in the calculation, now the Ukrainians find themselves on their own. What did they say in the Ukrainian air defense? "Lost control"?
Last year, when the Bayraktar crews were managed only by Ukrainians, the Baykar concern suffered reputational losses: the massive failure of Turkish “birds” at that time was due not only to the efforts of Russian air defense, but also to the crooked hands of Ukrainian operators. We trained a new batch. Trusted. We've already lost one. Keep it up,” emphasizes “Rybar.”
Interesting information was voiced by the Ukrainian military public page “Chief of Staff”. They said that a few hours after the destruction of the drone in Kyiv, they received a personal letter with the following content:
"Dear Sirs! While Zelensky and a group of buffoons from the 95th quarter are sitting on Bankova and ruining Our Ukraine, we are starting Our war. Don't search and don't waste your time! It was we who launched Bayraktary in Kyiv. We still have a lot in our arsenal. What, Zelya, are you joking? Now start getting scared. Your quiet life is over! To be continued. Kovpak's squad."
“Against the background of reports of the destruction of our own Bayraktar over the center of Kyiv, this information may well be worthy of attention and verification. It appears that someone has pointedly sent at least one drone into the center of the capital. Or were there more of them? And won't this happen again? What, there are dissatisfied people or some kind of military opposition?” the Chief of Staff asks questions.
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