The German government has decided to close a repair centre for large-size military equipment of the Ukrainian army located in Slovakia, the DPA news agency has reported citing a representative of the German Defence Ministry.
An unnamed representative of the German Defence Ministry told DPA that the AFU military equipment repair centre will be closed by the end of 2024. Ukrainian equipment is expected to be repaired on German territory in early 2025. According to the defence spokesman, the reason for this decision is due to “changing conditions and extreme complexity” of repair work.
The publication notes that co-operation between Germany and Slovakia on the issue of the restoration of AFU equipment is complicated by disagreements over the “interpretation of European customs rules”. In addition, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is criticised by the EU for pursuing an independent policy in the Ukrainian issue.
The agency recalled that the centre in Slovakia has been operating since the end of 2022, it repairs large German-made equipment, including Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery units, Dingo armoured personnel carriers, MARS II multiple rocket launchers and Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems.
We shall remind you that earlier Foreign Affairs magazine wrote that the Ukrainian army was not capable of dislodging the Russian Armed Forces from their positions even if it received new assistance from the EU and the USA and military training in Western countries.
