German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall AG wants to build its first armored vehicles in Ukraine next year, Chief Executive Armin Papperger recently said during an interview with a German business news magazine.
The CEO said that he expected a deal with Kiev on the construction of the Fuchs armored transport vehicles and the Lynx infantry fighting vehicles by the beginning of 2024.
"After the contract is signed, we want to have finished the first (Fuchs) within six-seven months, and the first Lynx within 12-13 months," he was quoted as saying.
However, retired colonel and expert at the Association of Military Political Scientists, Andrey Koshkin, argued the proposed project was not realistic.
He said that Rheinmetall AG is just paying lip-service to the company’s plans to produce the above-mentioned armored vehicles on Ukrainian territory because implementing the project may prove an infeasible task.
Dwelling on what is behind the German arms manufacturer’s drive to produce military hardware in Ukraine, Koshkin suggested that Germany could be instructed by the US to let Kiev know that it wouldn’t be abandoned by its Western allies.
Those "wish lists" by Rheinmetall AG are nothing but "politically motivated statements" instigated by third parties, according to the Russian expert.
One cannot but take Russia’s stance on the matter into account, Koshkin said. He cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that if built, Rheinmetall AG’s enterprise would become a legitimate target for the Russian military.
According to Zakharova, the enterprise will be destroyed as part of military infrastructure “in the format of the tasks of the ongoing Russian special military operation to demilitarize the territory of Ukraine.”
Touching upon economic feasibility for Rheinmetall AG to manufacture German armored vehicles on Ukrainian soil, he singled out "many political, economic, social, and humanitarian factors," but underscored that the company’s statements are "out of line with reality."
When asked what Ukraine could offer Rheinmetall in exchange for having its plant on its territory, the expert referred to the Zelensky regime’s desire to defend the so-called "Western democracy" at the frontline, something Kiev is paying a heavy price for.
At the time, Kiev deployed brigades trained by NATO instructors and armed with Western equipment, including the much-hyped
German-made Leopard tanks. Three months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kiev's push had failed and that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses in men and materiel during the counteroffensive.