Poland is ready to launch a service hub at the Bumar-Łabędy plant to overhaul and service Leopard tanks delivered to Ukraine. However, the problem is the low availability of spare parts. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence Mariusz Blaszczak is to talk to his German counterpart Boris Pistorius about breaking the deadlock on this issue.

‘I hope that Minister Pistorius will bring the German arms industry to supply parts to the hub’, said Mariusz Blaszczak before flying to an informal meeting of European Union defence ministers in Stockholm, which is devoted to Russian aggression against Ukraine and support for Kyiv.

“The Bumar-Labędy plant has the right conditions to carry out repairs. But there is a fundamental problem of a lack of spare parts for these tanks. This is the challenge facing Poland and Canada. But, of course, this is a problem that can only be solved by Germany, the German defence industry”, said the head of the national defence ministry and indicated that he hoped to break the deadlock on the issue. Mariusz Blaszczak said that the Polish defence industry is also ready to produce spare parts for the Leopards, but “of course all the documentation is held by Rheinmetall, which is a German company”.

“I have agreed with Minister Pistorius that I will be responsible for building a coalition of countries that have Leopard 2A4 tanks, and Minister Pistorius a Leopard 2A6. I succeeded in bringing about such a coalition including 14 Polish tanks, 4 are already in Ukraine, another 10 will arrive in Ukraine later this week. 8 Canadian tanks, because the Canadians have decided to increase this number to 8. There are also 6 more Spanish tanks, as well as vehicles which will provide support for the tank battalion and will be handed over by the Finns” said Deputy Prime Minister Błaszczak.

Adrian Andrzejewski