This was announced by Blaszczak. “The repair centre in Gliwice is up and running! The first two Leopards have already arrived at the Bumar plant from Ukraine,” wrote the minister on Twitter.
Back in April, Pistorius and Blaszczak agreed to have arms manufacturer Bumar-Labedy set up a maintenance centre in Gliwice. It will be used to repair Leopard main battle tanks from Germany and Poland that are being deployed by Ukraine in the fight against Russia.
In April of this year, during a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Ramstein, Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signed an agreement with his German counterpart regarding the establishment of a service center for the entire Leopard 2 tank family at the Bumar-Labedy plant.
The Bumar-Labedy will also be responsible for servicing and overhauling Ukrainian T-64 tanks, and the possibility of modifying them to the T-72 tank model or upgrading them cannot be ruled out.
In recent months, the transfer of a certain number of these tanks to support Ukraine has been the subject of intense debate. Ultimately, a decision was made to provide Ukraine with tanks in two versions – 2A4 and 2A6, in a battalion of each type.
The German government has given its consent to their transfer to Ukraine. Poland and Canada have declared their intention to provide Leopard 2A4 tanks, while Germany is set to transfer Leopard 2A6 and 2A4 tanks.
Germany has also agreed to provide up to 178 Leopard 1A5 tanks, with the exact number depending on the technical condition of the vehicles. By summer, this was planned to be 20-25 tanks, and by the end of the year, 80 tanks.
