Rheinmetall builds plant to produce shells: Ukraine to receive some 

The company wants to produce up to 200,000 artillery shells per year, Tagesschau reports.

The arms manufacturer plans to double or even triple its production capacity. The new facility is being built by defense contractor Rheinmetall in the town of Unterlüss between Hanover and Hamburg, where the company already has production facilities. In particular, Puma infantry fighting vehicles are manufactured there.

Rheinmetall plans to produce up to 200,000 artillery shells a year at the new plant. Even if all this ammunition were to be delivered to Ukraine - and this is not planned - it would cover only a quarter of the needs mentioned by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the German publication notes.

Rafael Loss from the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank believes that new ammunition factories should have been built soon after Russia's attack. Then Ukraine would not have found itself in a difficult situation with ammunition, the expert believes.

"We want to produce up to 700,000 artillery shells a year by 2025," Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger told reporters.

The CEO did not specify the exact number of artillery shells Rheinmetall supplies to Ukraine, but noted that it is "hundreds of thousands of shells".

• In March 2023, it was reported that Rheinmetall may build a tank plant in Ukraine.
• In May, it became known that this plant would produce German tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.