Germany closes equipment repair center for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Slovakia

Slovakia has repeatedly created difficulties in the operation of the repair center.

Germany has decided to close a military equipment repair center for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is located in eastern Slovakia .

As Bild reports , citing a statement from the German Ministry of Defense, it is planned to move the maintenance center to Germany by December 31.

“The representative of the Ministry of Defense pointed out the changing conditions and the need to perform extremely complex repair work on damaged equipment in places,” the report says.

It is noted that the decision was made after lengthy negotiations, due to problems with Slovakia, which repeatedly created difficulties in the operation of the repair center. There were also differences in the interpretation of European customs rules.

The Ukrainian military equipment repair center was opened in late 2022 at the initiative of Germany to repair Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers, Dingo armored vehicles, MARS II artillery missile systems, and Gepard anti-aircraft guns. Additional repair bases of German industry are also located in Lithuania and Ukraine.

Problems with repairing Western equipment

As DW wrote, Ukrainian soldiers are generally satisfied with Western weapons, but the impression is spoiled by constant delays and interruptions in their maintenance . To a large extent, they are a consequence of Western bureaucracy.

The military says that sometimes up to two-thirds of the German howitzers available to the Armed Forces of Ukraine are idle due to temporary unusability. Moreover, even those malfunctions that Ukrainians can fix in the field are not repaired for a long time due to a lack of spare parts.

(c)UNIAN 2024