Poland says hub to fix tanks damaged in Ukraine now open
PHOTO CAPTION: A Polish Leopard 2A5 tank, belonging to the 34th Armor Cavalry Brigade, fires at its target, during the Strong Europe Tank Challenge (SETC), at the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area, Grafenwoehr, Germany, May 12, 2016. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nathanael Mercado via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland said on Saturday that a maintenance hub for tanks damaged in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia had begun operating in its southern city of Gliwice.
Poland, one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's biggest allies since Russia's invasion last year, had been negotiating with Germany to create a joint workshop for Leopard tanks, but no common position has been announced.
"The maintenance hub in Gliwice has started operating! The first two Leopards have already arrived from Ukraine to the Bumar plant," Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.
It was not immediately clear if that hub was the mooted joint initiative with Germany.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
