Germany and Poland are closing in on a deal to set up a service hub to repair Leopard battle tanks and other equipment as Ukraine undertakes its counteroffensive against Russian forces, Berlin’s envoy said.
(Bloomberg) — Germany and Poland are closing in on a deal to set up a service hub to repair Leopard battle tanks and other equipment as Ukraine undertakes its counteroffensive against Russian forces, Berlin’s envoy said.
Talks should wrap up “in the coming days,” before the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, Thomas Bagger, Germany’s ambassador to Poland, told Bloomberg in Warsaw on Tuesday. The hub will be used to supply badly needed spare parts for the German-made equipment, he said.
After months of pressuring North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies to deliver hardware, Ukraine is sending them into the battlefield as part of a much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces to retake territory. Equipment, including Leopard tanks and US Bradley Fighting Vehicles, have shown up in images from the front line.
At least four of Ukraine’s Leopard 2 tanks and 16 of its Bradley fighting vehicles have been destroyed, damaged or abandoned so far, according to Oryx, an online group that catalogues confirmed equipment losses on both sides.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed Monday in Paris that long-struggling talks on the hub were nearly at an end — and that Germany, which has delivered Leopards, air defense systems such as Patriots and Iris-T and Gepard anti-aircraft guns, will soon be in a position to help repair them close to the battlefield.
“Of course it’s best if weapons systems only move a short distance outside of Ukraine, get repaired on the scene and then are redeployed,” Scholz said alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda and France’s Emmanuel Macron.
Poland, which has also delivered Leopard tanks to Ukraine, had criticized Germany for months before Scholz gave the green light for deliveries in January. German supplies of spare parts for older-model Leopards also became a source of friction between Warsaw and Berlin.
Service hubs have also been set up in Slovakia and Romania.
–With assistance from Marc Champion.
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