Ukraine intends to build a tank factory. Medvedev has already promised revenge

German arms concern Rheinmetall intends to open a tank production plant in Ukraine. According to the company's chief executive Armin Papperger, 200m euros may be allocated for the construction of the plant, Spiegel has reported.

It is noted that the company does not consider it necessary to wait for the end of the war in Ukraine and is ready to build the plant even under the threat of missile attacks by Russia. According to Papperger, the company will be able to protect the plant from Russian strikes, if any.

The capacity of the plant could be up to 400 main battle tanks of the Panther type per year," the publication specifies.

The German side calls the preliminary agreements "promising" and expects to finalise the deal in the near future.

Armin Papperger, head of Rheinmetall, believes that this is quite an interesting deal for both parties. For Ukraine, first and foremost, it will have the weaponry it needs "at hand".

Ukraine needs 600 to 800 tanks to win. Even if Germany were to give all 300 Leopard 2 tanks available to the Bundeswehr, this would still be too few," the head of Rheinmetall emphasized.

The Rheinmetall armament group currently produces around 250 tanks.

The news has already resonated in the Kremlin, with the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitriy Medvedev, reacting to the fact that the German concern Rheinmetall wants to build a tank plant in Ukraine even before the war is over. He threatened that Russia will destroy the plant with missile strikes, he wrote in Telegram.

"If the Krauts do decide to build for real (although they are kind of pragmatic people), we look forward to it. This event will be duly marked with a salute of Kalibers and other pyrotechnic devices," the message reads.

Rheinmetall, a German engineering and armament group, is one of Europe's largest manufacturers of military equipment and weapons, with major developments including the Leopard tank, the Marder MBT, the PzH 2000 SAU and other types of heavy equipment.