Polish Plan to Launch Tank Repair Center Hampered by Lack of Spare Parts

WARSAW (Sputnik) - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday that lack of spare parts for German-made Leopard main battle tanks stood in the way of creating a maintenance center to support the Ukrainian offensive.

"From what I know, the main problem is lack of spare parts for Leopards. It is hard to talk about Leopard maintenance when there is not enough spare parts," Morawiecki told reporters.

In mid-June Polish envoy to NATO Tomasz Szatkowski said that Warsaw and Berlin planned to set up a repair center in Poland's southern city of Gliwice in the near future. Szatkowski said Poland was also interested in servicing US-made Abrams tanks.

Ukraine's counteroffensive kicked off in early June after months of delays over a lack of military supplies from Western donors. According to Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian commanders failed to achieve their goals. The Ukrainian military has been trying to break through the defense lines of the Russian armed forces in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions, but their attempts have been unsuccessful and Ukraine has suffered heavy losses in armored equipment and manpower.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Monday that Russian armed forces had destroyed 920 Ukrainian armored vehicles, including 16 Leopard tanks, in Donbass and Zaporozhye regions in June.