Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday that lack of spare parts for German-made Leopard main battle tanks stood in the way of creating a maintenance center to support the Ukrainian offensive
WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2023) Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday that lack of spare parts for German-made Leopard main battle tanks stood in the way of creating a maintenance center to support the Ukrainian offensive.
"From what I know, the main problem is lack of spare parts for Leopards. It is hard to talk about Leopard maintenance when there is not enough spare parts," Morawiecki told reporters.
In mid-June Polish envoy to NATO Tomasz Szatkowski said that Warsaw and Berlin planned to set up a repair center in Poland's southern city of Gliwice in the near future. Szatkowski said Poland was also interested in servicing US-made Abrams tanks.
Ukraine's much-touted counteroffensive kicked off in early June after months of delays over a lack of military supplies from Western donors. After encountering stiff Russian resistance, Ukrainian commanders largely held off sending Western tanks into battle, focusing instead on making targeted strikes, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday that Russian armed forces had destroyed 920 Ukrainian armored vehicles, including 16 Leopard tanks, in Donbas and Zaporizhzhia regions in June.
