Poland is ready to maintain and repair Western tanks that are supplied to Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced this on Tuesday, March 7.

He stressed the readiness of the Polish defense industry to launch a service center that will maintain and update Leopard tanks for Ukraine.

“We are ready to launch a service center in Poland that will upgrade and maintain Leopard tanks delivered to Ukraine,” Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak stated during a press conference.

According to him, this center could be created on the basis of the Bumar-Łabędy defense enterprise in the city of Gliwice, southern Poland. However, he noted that there is a problem with the shortage of spare parts for German-made tanks.

This will become the main topic of negotiations between Mariusz Błaszczak and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during a meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm on March 7-8.

“I hope that Minister Pistorius will influence the German defence industry so that parts for Leopard tanks are supplied,” Błaszczak said.

He also noted that the Polish defense industry is ready to produce spare parts for German tanks. However, to do this, enterprises need to obtain the appropriate technical documentation, which belongs to the manufacturer of Leopard tanks – Rheinmetall.

In February this year, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the Polish government would make a significant investment in increasing the capacity of the country’s defence industry.

In particular, Huta Stalowa Wola SA will receive funding, which has concentrated its capacity on the production of Krab artillery systems for Ukraine.

Poland also launched a large-scale repair campaign to return damaged Ukrainian artillery and armored vehicles to the battlefield. Hundreds of people are working around the clock to restore equipment.

On February 24, Poland handed over the first batch of four Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.