BERLIN. April 3 (Interfax) - German arms maker Rheinmetall AG is building a maintenance center in Romania near the border with Ukraine to service military hardware supplied to Kiev by Western countries, the NTV German television channel said on Monday.
"Rheinmetall is actively building a logistics and maintenance center in Romania, a NATO partner country," the TV channel quoted an unnamed Rheinmetall representative as saying.
The hub will be located near the city of Satu Mare on the Romania-Ukraine border and is expected to begin operating in April.
In particular, the facility, which should play a central role in maintaining the operational readiness of Western weapons supplied to Ukraine, will be able to service Leopard 2 and Challenger tanks, self-propelled howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles, armored transport vehicles, and military trucks.
The center is also expected to begin providing support to NATO hardware in the future.
"It is a central concern for us at Rheinmetall to give the NATO forces as well as Ukraine the best possible support in this critical situation," Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said.
In June 2022, Rheinmetall, together with German arms industry company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG, set up a similar hub near Rukla in the center of Lithuania to service NATO vehicles in the Baltic states.