The head of the Ministry of Strategic Industries, Herman Smetanin, has announced the official opening of a joint venture between KMW (KNDS Deutschland) and a Ukrainian defence company.
According to Smetanin, the newly created company will specialise in the maintenance and repair of military equipment supplied by the German company to the Defence Forces. The minister reminded that the first samples of this equipment appeared in Ukraine in 2022.
‘Ukrainian specialists have already been trained in Germany, and the first systems have already been installed at the facilities,’ Smetanin said.
He stressed that ‘now the equipment will be repaired faster.’ The joint venture will also support the Ukrainian economy with investments and jobs.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is the main manufacturer of Leopard tanks.In January 2024, Sebastian Schäfer, the Green Party's expert on the military budget, said that of the 18 Leopard-2A6 tanks supplied by Germany to Ukraine, only a small part remained combat-ready, so he called for immediate measures to be taken to repair them.