Around half of Ukraine’s Leopard 2 tanks are said to be damaged.
(Photo: AP)
Vilnius, Berlin The German government is withdrawing from the agreement with Poland to repair Ukrainian Leopard tanks on Polish territory. The Handelsblatt learned this from people familiar with the matter. The reason for this is apparently the price expectations of the Poles, which are completely exaggerated from a German point of view.
From the Federal Ministry of Defense it was officially said that the final decision had not yet been made and that talks with the Polish side were still ongoing. “Poland and Germany continue to pursue the idea of repairing Leopard 2 tanks,” a spokesman said. We want to coordinate this together.
Ukraine urgently needs a way to get damaged Western-style main battle tanks back into service. In their ongoing counter-offensive, the Ukrainian armed forces are suffering heavy casualties. In March, after much hesitation, the German government handed Ukraine over 18 modern Leopard 2 A6 tanks. Other European partners also promised deliveries, including Poland. But there is also a dispute about the Leopard A4 tanks provided by Poland: Of the 14 vehicles delivered, eight arrived in Ukraine damaged, as the Handelsblatt learned.
The aim of the planned repair center was to service Leopard tanks as close as possible to the border with Ukraine in order to have short distances. In April, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and his counterpart signed a declaration of intent to build the tank workshop.
The center is to be set up jointly by the German armaments groups Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and the Polish company PGZ. According to informed circles, PGZ is said to have asked for prices that are ten times higher than usual.
Pistorius had recently increased the pressure at a meeting with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak. The negotiations should be completed “if possible within the next ten days so that we know in which direction things are going,” said Pistorius.
According to the Defense Ministry, Leopard 2A5 and Leopard 2A6 tanks will be repaired in Germany and probably also in Lithuania. The repair work on these models could start now, “as soon as the Ukrainian armed forces indicate the need for repair”. Negotiations on the repair of Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks were still ongoing.
Many Ukrainian Leopard tanks damaged
Ukraine relies on combat-capable Leopard tanks as they are needed to recapture Russian-held areas in the south and east of the country. According to experts, about half of the Leopard tanks delivered are already damaged. Photos from the battlefield circulating online networks show one or two vehicles destroyed, others in need of repairs.
This usually requires a few hundred hours of work per Leopard 2. At normal market prices, the federal government must reckon with an amount in the three-digit million range for the repair shop. In Poland, however, these costs would have been significantly higher, a person familiar with the processes told the Handelsblatt.
Alternatively, the main battle tanks could now be overhauled in Ukraine itself. To this end, the Germans would cooperate with the Ukrainian armaments company Ukroboronprom. The state-owned company with over 60,000 employees maintains a number of locations in the west of the country that have so far been protected from Russian air raids. Rheinmetall has already signed contracts for the maintenance and manufacture of tanks with Ukroboronprom.
While the cooperation with Poland is stuck, the cooperation with Romania is running. In the country, armored personnel carriers of the Marder type are to be overhauled. The project said there were no difficulties.
In the spring, however, there had been a dispute with Slovakia, where, among other things, howitzers for the Ukraine were to be serviced. The Slovak customs authorities demanded high tariffs for spare parts, which led to a conflict with Berlin.
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