Rheinmetall Announces Date of Opening of First Armoured Vehicle Plant in Ukraine

The German defence concern Rheinmetall will open an armoured vehicle plant in Ukraine within the next 12 weeks.

The biggest arms manufacturer of Germany will also train Ukrainians to maintain tanks and other armoured vehicles produced at the plant.

The plant will reportedly be located in Ukraine's west. 

"[Ukrainians] have to help themselves — if they always have to wait [for] Europeans or Americans [to] help them over the next 10 or 20 years… that is not possible,"  Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall, said in an interview for CNN.

The company hopes that the plant in Ukraine will produce about 400 tanks a year. Moreover, it is also planned to produce and repair the Fuchs armoured carriers there.

Papperger stated that the plant may be protected from potential Russian attacks.

"There are a lot of factories at the moment which are producing military goods [in Ukraine]. It is just another one — and we can protect that also," he said.

In May, the state Ukrainian defence concern Ukroboronprom signed an agreement about strategic partnership with Rheinmetall, which stipulated for creating a joint enterprise.

According to the agreement, Ukroboronprom and Rheinmetall will start their cooperation with technical maintenance and repairs of armoured vehicles that had been sent to Ukraine.

Rheinmetall aims to sign contracts for creating two more joint enterprises for ammunition and air defence production.

Rheinmetall is the biggest German armament manufacturer. According to its own data, the company is in the top three manufacturers of military equipment and ammunition in the Western world. At the moment, the exchange value of Rheinmetall is over €10 billion.