The armaments group Rheinmetall is negotiating the construction of a tank factory on Ukrainian soil. This can produce up to 400 Panther type battle tanks annually, said company boss Armin Papperger of the "Rheinische Post" on Saturday. He hopes for a decision "in the next two months". Threats of an attack on the plant have already come from Moscow.

"A Rheinmetall plant can be built in Ukraine for around 200 million euros," said Papperger. Accordingly, the talks with the Ukrainian government are "promising". The Rheinmetall boss was convinced that the plant could also be protected against Russian air raids: "Protection by anti-aircraft defense would not be difficult."

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened such attacks. The opening of the factory will be "duly celebrated with a salvo of Kalibr and other fireworks," wrote the current number two of the Russian Security Council on Saturday in the online service Telegram. Kalibr are Russian guided missiles that can be fired from aircraft, ships, submarines and land.

Rheinmetall boss Papperger considered the production of tanks in the Ukraine to be unavoidable. The country needs 600 to 800 tanks for a victory, said the Rheinmetall boss. In order for the crowd to come together, the construction of new tanks must start quickly. "Even if Germany gave up all of the 300 Leopard 2 tanks available to the Bundeswehr, that would still be far too few."

The Panther is a new main battle tank with a 130 mm gun that Rheinmetall presented last year. According to the company, it enables a range that is 50 percent longer than that of conventional tanks with a 120-millimeter gun. The 59-ton tank is said to be fully digitized and have a range of more than 500 kilometers.

Papperger expects the war in Ukraine to "probably last for years." "While the western allies are sending enough weapons there for Ukraine to defend itself, the Ukrainians don't have enough equipment today to fully retake their territory."

At the same time, Russia does not have as many resources as the West as a whole, said the Rheinmetall boss. But he couldn't see "that the leadership around Putin is making cutbacks in its aggressive course towards Ukraine."

Up until now, Rheinmetall has prepared older armored personnel carriers and main battle tanks for use in the Ukraine. Papperger gave a number of 250 tanks that will be made available to Ukraine. "We're working at full speed," he said.

"We have already made more than 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles operational, by the end of the year there will be around 100. Around 30 tanks out of 50 Leopard 2A4s are ready," said the head of the armaments group. "In addition, there are around 100 older Leopard 1 models, of which we can make 88 usable again from today's perspective."