Germany May Withdraw from Deal with Poland to Repair Ukraine-damaged Leopard Tanks

Germany may bow out of the deal with Poland to repair Leopard tanks damaged in the ongoing Ukraine war.

A German defense ministry official told local newspaper Handelsblatt that talks are on with the Poles on the fate of the deal, which is in dire straits reportedly due to inflated price expectations from Warsaw. An official announcement will be made in the coming days.

"Poland and Germany continue to pursue the idea of ​​repairing Leopard 2 tanks," the official was quoted as saying by the report.

Another outlet Der Spiegel recently wrote about the disagreements between Germany and Poland on the deal.

Germany wanted to open a facility valued €150 million close to Ukraine’s borders in May to restore damaged battle tanks. The center would be established by Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Poland’s Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ).

PGZ is said to have asked for prices that are ten times higher than usual, the report said without elaborating.

Russian outlet topcor.ru said PGZ wanted to charge more than €100,000 for the initial inspection of equipment while Germany expected only €12,000. In addition, Warsaw refused to take responsibility for the repair of Leopards destroyed in Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently said the negotiations should be completed "within the next ten days so that we know in which direction things are going.”

He said Leopard 2A5 and Leopard 2A6 tanks will be repaired in Germany and probably also in Lithuania. The repair work on these models could start now, "as soon as the Ukrainian armed forces indicate the need for repair.”

Ukraine has received 18 Leopard 2A6 tanks from Germany, and 36 Leopard 2A4s from Poland, Spain, Norway and Canada.

Independent monitoring organization Oryx claimed in its recent report that four Leopard 2A6s and three Leopard 2A4s – or about 13% of the Leopard tanks sent to Ukraine – are already destroyed by the Russians.