Germany will withdraw from the project for the construction of a maintenance hub for Leopard 2 tanks in Poland due to Warsaw's inflated expectations regarding maintenance payment, German newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
Berlin wants the tanks to be repaired as close to the Ukrainian border as possible, but Poland has set what Germany described as unreasonable prices for maintenance of the military equipment, the newspaper reported.
The German Defense Ministry will officially announce its withdrawal from the project in the coming days, the report said.
In mid-June, Polish envoy to NATO Tomasz Szatkowski said that Warsaw and Berlin were planning to set up a repair center for German-made Leopard battle tanks in Poland's southern city of Gliwice in the near future. Szatkowski said Poland was also interested in servicing US-made Abrams tanks.
However, in July, German magazine reported, citing sources, that Berlin and Warsaw had failed to reach a consensus on a final draft of the hub agreement, as Poland demanded over 100,000 euros ($110,000) for maintenance of one tank as part of the primary assessment. For comparison, in Germany, the cost of such work does not usually exceed 12,000 euros per tank, the report said.
