Germany and Poland fail to agree on how to repair Ukrainian Leopard tanks
Military industry sources believe that the Polish authorities are deliberately delaying the construction of the plant for political reasons
The German and Polish governments cannot agree on how to repair Ukrainian Leopard tanks that were transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The vehicle repair center has not yet opened.
Source. Spiegel writes about this with reference to sources in the defense sector.
In April, at the US Air Force base in Ramstein, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced the opening of a Leopard tank repair center in Poland. He noted that the German-Polish joint venture was important for Ukraine: the plant was to repair damaged Ukrainian Armed Forces tanks delivered from the front.
Pistorius described the plan in detail and even mentioned its estimated cost of 150 million euros.
The center was supposed to open at the end of May, but so far, the creation of the repair plant in Poland has not progressed. Instead, the officials of the two countries regularly argue about the details of the joint venture's structure, insiders in the German defense industry told the publication.
According to the plan, the joint venture was to be organized by two German arms companies, Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, and the Polish defense company PGZ was to open a tank repair plant on its territory. The German government promised to cover the cost of repairing the Leopard.
One of the reasons for the delay is the estimate of the cost of repairs, Spiegel's sources say. According to them, PGZ intends to receive 100,000 euros for the initial diagnosis of tanks, and in Germany, this service usually costs about 12,000 euros. In addition, PGZ does not plan to provide guarantees for the repair work. These are very unusual conditions, the publication notes.
Spiegel's military industry sources believe that the Polish authorities are deliberately delaying the construction of the plant for political reasons. According to the newspaper, the government in Warsaw is waging a regular campaign against Berlin, and Poland's ruling Law and Justice party does not miss an opportunity to criticize the German leadership.
Meanwhile, several Ukrainian Leopard tanks have already arrived in Poland in need of repair. As previously reported by the Dutch website Oryx, at least 4 of these tanks were lost by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the first days of the counteroffensive.
Background. It was recently reported that Ukraine will receive 14 more Leopard 2 tanks from the Netherlands.
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