KYIV. Oct 28 (Interfax) - Ukraine did not violate anything by using a Turkish-made Bayraktar reconnaissance and combat drone in Donbas, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
"We have observed the necessary communication procedures via the Joint Center for Control and Coordination and with OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe], so as to exercise our right to self-defense," Kuleba said at a press conference following negotiations with Ignazio Cassis, vice president of Switzerland, a member of the Swiss Federal Council, and head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which took place in Kyiv on Thursday.
Commenting on the German Federal Foreign Office's concerns about the use of a Bayraktar drone in Donbas, Kuleba said, "If I were my partners, I'd be concerned above all by the fact that a howitzer, which is banned by the Minsk Agreements, was where it wasn't supposed to be, that is, much closer to the line of contact than is allowed under the Minsk Agreements. So, for some reason, when they pull a howitzer close to the line of contact, fire upon our positions, and kill our soldiers, this fact remains without a proper evaluation."
"We're communicating with our German counterparts, we have no doubts that they remain strongly committed to a peaceful settlement and are trying to help us stop Russian aggression against our state, and we are very grateful to them for this. However, we are convinced that any judgements should be made with the entire context of the situation taken into consideration. This is the only way to make sure that these judgements are unbiased and enable their target audience to perceive the situation correctly," he said.
The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle developed and manufactured by the Turkish defense company Baykar.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said on October 26 that they had used a Bayraktar drone for the first time in the operational area of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas on orders from their commander, Lieut. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny.
The Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation press center said that "the hostiles" fired a battery of D-30 howitzers upon the positions of Ukrainian government forces near the community of Hranitne from 2:25 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., injuring two Ukrainian service members, one of whom later died.
"When the attacks began, a demand to comply with the ceasefire was urgently communicated through the OSCE SMM [Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine], and a note was sent via diplomatic channels," the press center said.
"To force the enemy to stop firing," Ukrainian government forces used the Bayraktar, it said.
"The unmanned aerial vehicle did not cross the conflict line and destroyed one gun along with its crew using a guided bomb," the press center said.
After that, the attacks on Ukrainian positions stopped, it said.