Kuleba discusses increasing the armored potential of Ukraine with Rheinmetall CEO

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has met with Rheinmetall defense concern CEO.

He announced this on his Twitter page and posted a photo from the meeting.

According to Kuleba, Armin Papperger and he discussed projects on increasing Ukraine’s capabilities for main battle tanks and other armored vehicles.

It refers to both short-term and long-term projects in the defense sector.

“I met with Rheinmetall AG CEO Armin Papperger to focus on ways to increase production [probably of armored vehicles and other weapons – ed.] for Ukraine and allies.

We also discussed large projects to boost Ukraine’s tank and armored vehicles capabilities, both short-term and long-term,” the Foreign Minister wrote.

Kuleba emphasized that Rheinmetall was ready to increase cooperation.

Earlier, Armin Papperger told German media that Rheinmetall was willing to supply Ukraine with its latest weapons models, including KF51 Panther future tanks.

He underlined that negotiations with Kyiv were already ongoing. And if they are successful, the German government will have to approve the export of armored vehicles.

The prototype of the Panther KF51 tank was first presented last year at the Eurosatory 2022 arms exhibition. However, not a single production unit of this vehicle has not been manufactured so far.

Also in February, Rheinmetall began producing hundreds of thousands of 35mm ammunition for Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled guns owned by Ukraine.

In addition, the German defense concern can provide a large amount of ammunition for Leopard 2 tanks, which Germany and other countries will send to Ukraine.