About three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Serhiy Prytula launched a counter-campaign from Kyiv. Prytula, a well-known Ukrainian TV personality with salt-and-pepper hair and small, piercing eyes, appeared in a YouTube video, asking for donations. “I invite you to join this noble cause,” the 41-year-old said solemnly over rousing music, referring to something he called “the People’s Bayraktar Project”. He wasn’t proposing to buy food or medical supplies; he was raising funds to buy three drones known as the Bayraktar TB2.
A sleek aircraft with a 12m wingspan and a relatively affordable, seven-figure price tag, the Bayraktar gained a reputation for blowing up Russian tanks and artillery in the first weeks of the invasion. (It’s pronounced “bye-rack-tar” and means “standard bearer” in Turkish.) In Ukraine, the drone’s effectiveness made Bayraktar a household name and inspired a hit song penned by soldier-songwriter Taras Borovok. “He turns Russian bandits into ghosts: Bayraktar,” goes one of the verses.
