Rheinmetall, Germany’s leading arms maker, will open a plant to manufacture tanks and other armored vehicles in Ukraine within the next 12 weeks as the West is looking to boost Ukraine’s weapons industry.
Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger told CNN that the company will also train Ukrainians how to use and maintain the tanks they manufacture at the plant. He said Ukrainians need to learn how to “help themselves” and cannot rely on Europeans and Americans for maintenance.
The German company will operate the factory with Ukroboronprom, a Ukrainian state-owned defense firm. Papperger said the facility will be located in western Ukraine.
Other Western arms companies are looking to establish factories in Ukraine, and Russia has warned that it could target the plants. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, warned in June that Russia should respond to Western arms manufacturing in Ukraine with “salvos of Kalibr (cruise missiles) and other Russian pyrotechnic devices.”
Papperger insisted that the Rheinmetall plant would be able to be protected from any Russian attacks. “There are a lot of factories at the moment which are producing military goods [in Ukraine]. It is just another one — and we can protect that also,” he said.
The war in Ukraine has been a boon for Rheinmetall and other Western arms makers. Papperger said that the focus right now is producing more artillery rounds, and his company is working on ramping up its annual production of shells from 100,000 to 600,000.
Wow, about 5 times the shells, that means eventually Ukraine might be able to fire their artillery half as often as Russia can!
That’s great… Then the Russians can destroy it.
imagine convincing investors that would be a good investment.
“certainly that will not be an immediate risk, what could go wrong?”
“oh i am convinced that is money well spent – please accept my check!”
idiots
I know a couple of folks here that ought to dump some of their money into it to show us just how confident they are of Ukraine success.
This smacks of a scam btw….
It does smack of a scam. There’s no way Papperger believes a move like this is in the same galaxy as sound business decisions.
I’m sure it’s in the “planning” stages and after consideration (and quite a bit of money spent on various studies and other “preparations”) they’ll decide not go forward and after a year or so of expensive “winding down the project ” all money will be returned….to whatever law firm is in charge of the invester law suit ……to pay their bill for the lawsuit.
I get the feeling that Germany wants to help Ukraine produce weapons so that Germany can extricate itself from this mess, perhaps with some profits flowing back when the factories go online. When Ukraine can produce its own weapons, maybe they’ll stop asking other countries for more. (Yea, Right) Also, if Russia decides to destroy such factories, at least it won’t be Germans dying on German territory.
I have said to many people who think Ukraine is going to win , would you bet your house on it , there`s been no takers up to this point .
I don’t own a house.
But how would you define a “win” for either side?
The state makes its own definitions as in 1984, it’s called double think along with new speak.
Sorry to butt in, but a win for both sides would be for both to tell the USA to fukk off and tell oligarchs, politicians and assorted rulers to fight their own wars.
Yes, that would be nice. Especially if the “telling” involved overthrowing all of the involved regimes and replacing them with nothing.
That’s the only way it could be done. Otherwise the current rulers would just be replaced by others of the same ilk. “…. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”.
Good question. It certainly seems as if Z wants Crimea and the Donbass, but not the people who live there. Is he merely a fanatic? Or is there something there that the rest of Ukraine can’t live without?
It’s not like, as far as I know, the people in these areas refused to trade with Kyev. Donbas steel, ammonia, grain, natural gas, etc. would still be available to Kyev. But only at a fair price.
I see the same mentality in Biden’s views of China. He wants to control their productive capacity. He doesn’t want to trade for the fruits of their labor, and he doesn’t want US companies to worry about competition in their respective industries. At least that’s how I see it now.
“”It certainly seems as if Z wants Crimea and the Donbass,..””
and yet Kiev government has repeatedly bombed both.
that is hardly endearing the Kiev government to either.
The way these comment sections work is that even if the war stops at this moment with Russia holding what they grabbed, there are some who will twist it into victory for the West and Ukraine.
Oh, however it ends, all sides will claim “victory.”
But in order for such a claim to be even a little plausible on Russia’s part, they’ll need to have at least secured Donetsk and Luhansk (and, of course, held on to Crimea) prior to the ceasefire.
And in order for such a claim to be even a little plausible on Ukraine’s party, they’ll need to have at least regained control of Kherson and Zaporzhizhia (possibly minus a narrow land corridor on the Azov coast that remains in Russian possession).
Which is almost certainly exactly what the situation will look like when the guns go silent.
You keep saying that; but where is the evidence that Ukraine has the slightest chance of retaking any part of Zaporizhe or Kherson east-of the-dnepr? After 6 weeks of losses they have barely penetrated the security zone, where they sit being constantly shelled with new scatterable minefields being dropped all around them; they haven’t “taken” anything.
Ukrainian “offensives” are a stupid idea and useless except as a bit of propaganda.
They get those two oblasts back when the Russians get tired of fucking around and focus their resources entirely on securing Donetsk so they can end this thing, withdrawing from everything that they aren’t going to get to keep and know they’re not going to get to keep.
That makes little sense. They have prepared extensive defensive lines, that will allow them to hold against most anything Ukraine can throw against them, unless Ukraine somehow gets an immense increase in firepower – which DPICM is not. Russia still has over 400,000 men mobilized that are not deployed to Ukraine yet; if they choose to finish the job in the Donbas, the forces to do it are already at hand. One has little to do with the other. I believe that they believe they are keeping Zaporizhe and Kherson east-of the-river for good.
Well, I guess we’ll see. So far, after 17 months, they haven’t even been able to secure Donetsk.
Agreed; we’ll see.
If you have Amaz. + watch ‘Modern Warfare’ which has an excellent teacher and is objective and unbiased. Fascinating series.
Wouldn’t it be easier to move Scholz’s offices to Kiev and run Germany’s day to day from there? …. along the same lines as “Student in Government Day”?
Russian MoD: “We have successfully destroyed the Rheinmetall plant in Ukraine.”
Lol
Do you think something would likely prevent Russian forces from destroying such a factory?
i’m sure that was a rhetorical question
Germany`s tank plant will be promptly bombed by Russia just as the first tank is completed .
I don’t think I would take a job there. But, those who build the factory will get their goodies out of it before it’s destroyed. Always ask, who benefits for a lot of answers.
One scenario: Russian satellite spots plant. Russia dispatches hypersonic missiles. Boom! No more plant. Wouldn’t it be nice if we just end the war? Hmmm?
the likely scenario. and as far as that goes, why hasn’t Russia simply rocketed Zelinsky already? i can’t imagine he would be too hard for Russian satellites to spot
One scenario: Russian satellite spots plant. Russia dispatches hypersonic missiles. Boom! No more plant. Wouldn’t it be nice if we just end the war? Hmmm?
There is more to German politics than meets the eye. With the clear understanding on all fronts that Western Ukraine (Volnyia and Galicia) has been traded back and forth among empires — and its Ukrainian present location not satifying to anyone,
Primarily Russians, ethnic Russia Ukrainians or just plain Orthodox Russian speaking Ukrainians — would like West Ukraine to go anywhere but be part of Ukraine. Ever since coup in 2014 — it became clear. For Catholic Western Ukraine to remain part of Ukraine meant diminishing the influence of majority Christian Orthodox population. It is one or the other. Minority cannot accept the rule of majority. And sought NATO to assist in population reengineering.
For as long as Zelenski was on track to get NATO membership. West Ukraine supported him. It was clear to anyone who cared to think that Ukraine could not beat Russia. Even without trying hard, or use airforce, Russia acquired a belt oi land accompassing Azov sea coast and Crimea land connection.
And what has Germany got to with it?
German building a factory/repair facility in West Ukraine. is a first step in the direction of supporing West Ukraine, when — not if — support for Zelenski fades.
US had a simple plan. Force Russia into protecting Donbas and entering Ukraine. After that, massive sanctions, and world wide push to isolate ‘Russia, prevent it to export its chief money making assets, crush its economy. As a result, Ukraine would have been
ripe for the taking. US also insured that Europe is weakened substantially, especially Germany.
But Russia did not oblige. Military actions taken withn first 3 weeks accomplished most of strategic goals, paricularly taking control of Azov Sea and land bridge to Crimea, The world did not oblige either. Russia is not isolated, in fact China-Russia axis turned Gulf around by reintegrating Iran.
But Germany is a split country at this time. Large indusries are migrating some operations, which has hit German distributed manufacturing networks., Small towns in Germany survive by manufacturing parts for large industries. This has a potential of undermining the whole economic structure Germany is known for.
German industrialists as well as a growing numbers of public are very disatisfied with deindustrialization and giving away already meager German military capabilities. Ukraine help is not very popular in Germany. Military has its own agenda, and in the name of Ukraine, want to rebuild Germnan military industrial complex.
And along with it, some historical grievances surfaced. Poland took part of former Prussia, while Poland lost Galicia to Soviet Union. Germany will not allow Poland to gain territory if West Ukraine loses faith in Zelenski. Once Lvov figures out that NATO will not get involved, and support for Ukraine shifts to “bilateral agreemenrts” between Ukraine and other states — handwriting is on the wall. Kiev is not getting NATO cavalry coming to the rescue.
Which leaves Lvov with a dilemma. US would be supporting Poland to “defend” West Ukraine, but Lvov would prefer Germany.
There is no evidence of peace efforts. But there is plenty of evidence of various conflicting interests in Europe. By taking sides US is just making things worse.
Vilnus is a breaking point.
People are going to be lining up to short sell the stock in this company.
Never forget that Ukraine is corrupt. Its most recent Oligarch has probably already locked in the contract for this new factory. We know, for example, that Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in Ukraine before the war, is looking for gifted capital to compensate him for the loss of his steel factory at Mariupol.