VINNITSYIA, Ukraine — As Western leaders scramble to stave off a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, a pair of air force colonels in this medieval town in southwest Ukraine are showering praise on Turkey’s globally coveted combat drones, the Bayraktar TBT 2.

“The Bayraktar drone provides precision targeting to the artillery to destroy a column of tanks. It’s a quality drone that does everything in real time in an automated system,” raved Lt. Col. Yuri Ignat, spokesperson for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during an exclusive 70-minute interview with Al-Monitor.

“The drone will point to the coordinates and literally three seconds later the decision will be made to suppress and destroy the advancing troops. The drone is a weapon. The drone is a spy. It gives Ukraine a new, qualitative edge over the enemy,” he said.

“The drones make it harder for the Russians,” chimed in his fellow colonel who runs the Ukrainian military’s drone program. The colonel, who briefed Al-Monitor on condition that his name be withheld, said he spent three months training alongside other Ukrainian air force officers in 2019 at a facility in western Turkey owned by Baykar Makina, the private Turkish defense firm that produces the drones and is run by Selcuk Bayraktar, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s favorite son-in-law. “I loved it there,” the colonel said.