After months of hesitation, the West is supplying main battle tanks to Ukraine. However, to successfully defend against the Russian invaders, there are probably still far too few of them. The German arms group Rheinmetall therefore wants to start producing Panther battle tanks in Ukraine. Negotiations on the construction of a tank factory are already underway.
“A factory in Rheinmetall can be set up in the Ukraine for about 200 million euros, which will produce up to 400 Panthers per year. Talks with the government there are promising and I hope for a decision in the next two months,” Group CEO Armin Papperger of Düsseldorf’s “Rheinische Post” said on Saturday. It would not be “difficult” to protect the tank factory on Ukrainian territory against Russian air raids, he said with conviction.
It took hundreds of tanks to win
According to Papperger, Ukraine needs 600 to 800 tanks to win. To get the crowd together, construction of new tanks must begin soon. “Even if Germany gave up all 300 available Leopard 2 tanks to the Bundeswehr, that would be far too few,” he stressed.
The Rheinmetall boss assumes that the war will last for years. “While the Western Allies send enough weapons to Ukraine to defend themselves, the Ukrainians today do not have enough equipment to completely retake their territory. At the same time, Russia may not have as many resources as the West as a whole, but so far I have not seen Putin’s leadership make any concessions to his aggressive course towards Ukraine. We can only solve this balancing act by supporting Ukraine much more consistently,” said Papperger.
Armored vehicles purchased with donation money
The Ukrainian government currently estimates that it will receive about 140 Western main battle tanks. The fund of the well-known Ukrainian comedian and presenter Serhij Prytula claims to have bought more than 100 other used armored vehicles with donations. “The first part – 24 vehicles – is already in Ukraine,” it said on Friday. The 41-year-old showed himself in a video with the armored but unarmored tracked vehicles of eight different types in the background (see tweet below). The tanks were therefore bought and processed in Great Britain.
The Russian army lost 2000 tanks
Russia has so far lost more than 2,000 large battle tanks during its invasion, according to NATO’s Supreme Commander in Europe. More than 200,000 Russian soldiers and more than 1,800 officers were killed or wounded, General Christopher Cavoli said at an event at Hamburg’s city hall on Friday. On average, the Russian army fires more than 23,000 artillery shells per day.
Source: Krone
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