The German government is terminating the agreement to establish a repair centre for Ukrainian Leopard tanks in Poland. This was reported by the Handelsblatt publication. The official announcement is expected shortly. Informs Mind.
According to the publication's sources, the decision was prompted by the Polish side's inflated price expectations. Earlier, Spiegel's sources noted that the Polish defence company PGZ intends to charge €100,000 for initial diagnostics of the tanks, whereas this service typically costs around €12,000 in Germany.
It is noted that at present, Ukrainian soldiers need a way to repair damaged Western-made tanks and make them fit for battle again.
Background. In March, after a long period of hesitation, Germany transferred 18 modern Leopard 2 type A6 tanks to Ukraine. Other partners also promised deliveries, including Poland.
In April at the US Air Force base in Ramstein, the German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced the opening of a Leopard tank repair centre in Poland. He stated that the German-Polish joint venture is important for Ukraine: the factory was to repair damaged tanks delivered from the front lines of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The centre was set to open at the end of May.
According to the plan, the joint venture was to be organised by two German arms conglomerates, Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, and PGZ was to open a tank repair factory on its territory. The costs of repairing the Leopards were expected to be covered by the German government.
Spiegel's sources from the military industry believe that the Polish authorities are deliberately delaying the construction of the factory for political reasons. As the publication reports, the Warsaw government is running a regular campaign against Berlin, and Poland's ruling party Law and Justice does not miss an opportunity to criticise German leadership.
Meanwhile, several Ukrainian Leopard tanks requiring repair have already arrived in Poland. As previously reported by the Dutch website Oryx, at least 4 such tanks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were destroyed in the first days of the counteroffensive. Нагадаємо: Байден підтримав передачу касетних боєприпасів Україні.
