The service center being built near the town of Sadu Mare in northern Romania, near the border of Ukraine and Hungary, will be operational by the end of April, the company announced.
The repair facility “will play a key role in maintaining the operational readiness of Western combat systems deployed in Ukraine and providing their logistical support,” Rheinmetall said in a statement.
The center can service the Panther 2 battle tanks that Germany recently sent to Ukraine, as well as self-propelled howitzers, mortar infantry fighting vehicles, Fuchs armored personnel carriers and military trucks.
The company also said the center could handle NATO combat vehicles, which Rheinmetall says would provide “shorter reaction times” to NATO’s eastern flank.
Arms for Ukraine. OSW about equipment from the west
According to the Center for Eastern Studies, after the division of units (before the West), Ukraine had at its disposal a total of 77 Western tanks (32 Cheetah 2A4, 21 Cheetah 2A6, 10 Cheetah 2A5 and 14 Challenger 2), 149 infantry fighting vehicles (109 Bradley and 40 Mortar). , 90 Stryker wheeled armored personnel carriers and 40 (according to media reports) armored reconnaissance cars with 105 mm AMX-10RC cannon.
“It will be deployed at a time and place, breaking Russian defenses and making it possible to launch a counter-offensive announced by Kiev,” the OSW statement said.
Waiting for flights to Kiev. Kremlin: We will destroy them
Officials in Kiev have long appealed to their allies for military assistance not only in the form of tanks, but also in the form of medium- and long-range missiles and fighter jets. For now, this has not been approved by the United States, although unofficial press reports indicate that it may agree to re-export F-16s from other countries.
At the same time, Poland and Slovakia announced that they would hand over their MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the delivery of the MiGs, saying the planes would not affect the outcome of a “special military operation” as Russia calls the war, but would only “bring more misery to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.” ”
“Of course, all this equipment will be destroyed during the “special military operation,” Peskov said.
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