German arms group Rheinmetall is holding " promising
" talks
with Kiev over the construction in Ukraine of a tank factory the country needs to repel the Russian invasion, its chairman said in an interview published on Saturday.
"
A Rheinmetall factory can be built in Ukraine for around 200 million euros
" with the aim of producing up to 400 Panther-type battle tanks per year, Armin Papperger told the "
Rheinische Post
" newspaper.
The boss said he expected a decision “
within the next two months
”.
The factory could "
without difficulty
" be protected from Russian attacks via anti-aircraft defense systems.
According to him, Ukraine needs 600 to 800 tanks to win against the Russian forces, hence the need to quickly produce new tanks.
“
Even if Germany made available (to Ukraine) the 300 Leopard 2 tanks of the Bundeswehr, that would be clearly insufficient
”.
After procrastinating for a long time, Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave the green light at the end of January to sending Leopard tanks, a flagship of German armament, to Ukraine.
Berlin, which wants to provide a total of 18 Leopard 2A6 tanks from Bundeswehr stocks, is coordinating a coalition of countries whose objective is to send two battalions of 31 Leopards to Kiev and in which Sweden, Finland, Portugal or Poland.
For its part, the industrial Rheinmetall should be able to muster nearly 250 tanks as part of military aid to Ukraine, many of which will go to the Czech Republic and Slovakia to replace their previous shipment to Kiev of manufactured armored vehicles. Russian.
Others will go to the Bundeswehr, others to Ukraine, said Armin Papperger.