By KYIV. March 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The German engineering concern Rheinmetall is negotiating with Ukraine on the construction of a tank plant on Ukrainian soil, the German publication Der Spiegel reports on Saturday morning.
“The Rheinmetall plant could be built in Ukraine for around 200 million euros… It could produce up to 400 Panther main battle tanks a year,” CEO Armin Papperger told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
He also noted that negotiations with the Ukrainian government were “promising”.
Papperger hopes a decision will be made “within the next two months.”
The Rheinmetall chief is convinced that the plant can be defended against Russian air attacks, noting that “protecting with air defense will not be difficult.”
According to him, Ukraine will need 600 to 800 tanks to win, and their construction needs to start quickly. “Even if Germany gives the Bundeswehr all 300 Leopard 2 tanks, this will be too little,” Papperger said.
Rheinmetall is currently supplying about 250 tanks to Ukraine. “We are working at full speed… We have already commissioned more than 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and by the end of the year there will be about 100. Of the 50 Leopard 2A4 tanks, about 30 tanks are ready. In addition, there are about 100 Leopard 1 old designs, of which we can make 88 serviceable,” Papperger said.
The head of the concern suggested that the war would continue, “perhaps for several years.” “Western allies are sending enough weapons there to enable Ukraine to defend itself, but the Ukrainians today do not have enough equipment to fully reclaim their territory,” he said.
At the same time, the Russian Federation does not have such large resources as the West as a whole, said the head of Rheinmetall. At the same time, Papperger does not see that “the leadership around Putin will make any concessions from its aggressive course towards Ukraine.”
