Ukraine's allies are trying to resolve the issue with the repair and maintenance of numerous Western equipment. In May, a German Leopard repair plant opens in Poland, but this is clearly not enough. In Ukraine, Western countries are being asked to send mechanics and technicians closer to the battlefield, but there will be few willing to work in the conflict zone. Will the enemy be able to deal with the repair of the delivered equipment and how does Russia solve this problem? In May, the Polish defense plant "Bumar-Labendy" in Gliwice will repair and maintain German Leopard tanks, which are supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
As the Minister of National Defense of Poland Mariusz Blaszczak said this week, tanks in versions 2A4 and 2A6 will be serviced at the plant. At the same plant, T-72 tanks are being upgraded, which are also used by the APU.
The problems with the repair of tanks were stated in an interview with the American magazine Newsweek by the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov. According to him, "it is very difficult to send tanks to Europe for repair," and it would be easier for Western countries to send specialists to the territories controlled by Ukraine and help with the maintenance of weapons transferred to the country on the spot.
"I am sure that our partners could hire such specialists, and we will do everything possible to organize their arrival in Ukraine. We have been offering our partners assistance in providing maintenance as close as possible to the battlefield for a long time... If specialists with access to the necessary documents came here, it would help a lot," Reznikov said.
A similar request was formulated by the adviser to the Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko. According to him, the West should create service centers in Ukraine to service previously supplied artillery, howitzers and tanks. "Our technical specialists have experience of very rapid adaptation from Soviet to Western systems, if only they are provided with proper training and access to the required technical documentation," Gerashchenko assured.
And although Ukroboronprom in early April announced plans to start joint maintenance of Soviet T-64 tanks with a division of the Polish state arms manufacturer Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), such capacities are clearly insufficient for the concern.
Against this background, the Czech Republic volunteered to repair Ukrainian tanks and other equipment. For this purpose, the capacities of local and Slovak defense industry companies will be used. The first contract will be signed for the repair of Soviet T-64 tanks, Reuters reports.
Romania is also involved in this process. So, in the city of Satu-Mare near the border with Ukraine, the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall is building a service hub for the Armed Forces. The center will service Leopard 2 and Challenger tanks, self-propelled howitzers, Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Fuchs armored personnel carriers and military trucks. A similar hub appeared earlier in Lithuania.
In addition, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger has repeatedly stated his desire to build a tank factory on the territory controlled by Ukraine, but only after the end of the special operation. Nevertheless, the repair of equipment for the APU is already becoming a headache for Europeans. This is especially true of the German self-propelled guns Panzerhaubitze 2000, which wear out faster than the German generals expected.
Discussions in the government of Olaf Scholz about the expediency of Leopard supplies also concerned the logistics of faulty equipment, which is subject to severe wear during intense battles. Spare parts for various Western weapons systems should be kept ready as close as possible to the Ukrainian border. But that's only half the trouble. It also requires trained personnel capable of repairing these weapons systems.
Thus, the APU faced a contradictory situation. On the one hand, NATO says: the alliance has completed training and armed more than nine brigades of the Armed Forces, and also delivered 98% of the promised aid to Ukraine, including 1.5 thousand armored vehicles, 230 tanks and a huge amount of ammunition. On the other hand, this whole heterogeneous "zoo" needs maintenance, and in general, the Ukrainian side considers the current supply volumes insufficient.
According to military analyst Mikhail Onufrienko, the current state of affairs looks like a catastrophe that is being hidden by the Ukrainian media and politicians. "If the broken track of the caterpillar can be replaced right on the spot, then complex equipment cannot be replaced on the spot. To do this, the damaged car will have to be dragged more than a thousand kilometers to factories in Poland and Romania. Accordingly, it takes them a week to deliver the tank, another month or two for the repair itself," the expert explained.
At the same time, the alliance is not ready to place expensive repair shops directly on the territory of Ukraine, because they will be destroyed by the Russian military. "If we start hitting the railway tracks, which we are not doing yet, then repairs will become meaningless, because it is hardly possible to drag armored vehicles on trawls from the left bank," the source added.
Nevertheless, this state of affairs is quite satisfactory for Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Romanians, because they earn enormous money by local standards on this "logistical perversion".
"This is a successful business project for them. After all, they do not have to die near Artemovsk for the ambitions of Zelensky and NATO, and the money is still dripping," Onufrienko said. "Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, of course, will not drag their repair equipment to Ukraine. It is not practical for them. Thus, Ukrainians will be engaged in minor repairs, and technical personnel from other Eastern European countries will be engaged in major repairs. And no one will send specialists with European passports to Ukraine, otherwise it will turn into a scandal within the EU countries," believes corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences Alexander Bartosh.
Russia has no such problems with maintenance, Onufrienko emphasizes. The fact is that the equipment is more reliable, simpler and unpretentious, and the proximity of repair facilities helps out. In addition, Russian cars are unified, from the T-78 to the T-90 is one element base, "and the British Challenger, German Leopard, American Abrams and French Leclerc are slightly different things."
"In general, we have preserved a powerful mobile repair base since the war. There was one in Ukraine, too, and it consisted of no less than 13 factories. Of these, only three enterprises survived until the start of the SVO, but now they are rightly bombed, and the rest was stolen by Ukrainian officials.",
– the analyst added. Therefore, with competent aviation and bomber support of the Russian Armed Forces troops in Ukraine, there will be a sharp decrease in the number of combat-ready equipment, Onufrienko is sure. "There are already so few of these equipment, and if it fails, then taking into account the time for repair logistics, it will become even less at the front," Onufrienko explained.
Bartosz also recalls the recently announced creation of additional capacities in Russia for the repair and maintenance of military equipment. "Our specialists go to the repair sites if it does not require factory conditions. That's why it's easier for us. We repair our own equipment, for which all spare parts are produced by the domestic industry. Poles and Slovaks do not have this, they need to apply to Germany and the UK to get spare parts. This is a very difficult engineering, technical and political problem," the expert emphasizes.
According to Onufrienko, neither the European nor the American authorities will want to create repair facilities on the territory controlled by Ukraine, and even more so in maximum proximity to the battlefield, and send their specialists there.
"It's very expensive. They are well aware that these service centers will be instantly destroyed even before commissioning, so it is completely pointless to build them on the territory of Ukraine. Civilian specialists will not go to work in Ukraine for any money. No one will teach the locals. The West is still playing its game, and the APU is nothing more than expendable for them," Onufrienko is convinced.
Bartosz is also sure that among civilian specialists in Poland and Slovakia there are no people willing to go to the special operation zone, "where it is very easy to lose your head." "They're just afraid. Not everyone wants to go to the SVO zone and get there in full from our gunners, rocket men or aviation. Therefore, the logistical problems of the APU are practically unsolvable," the expert summed up.
Andrey Rezchikov