Poland: Dispute with Germany’s Rheinmetall over Disruption of Ammunition Deliveries
The South African government has blocked the production of shells at the Rheinmetall branch in Cape Town: “They should be supplied to Ukraine”
Rheinmetall, Germany’s leading defense industry company, has frozen the implementation of the contract with Poland for the supply of 155-mm artillery shells, the most common NATO standard, also widely used by the Ukrainian army. According to the Warsaw newspaper Rzeczpospolita, in an article titled “German Company Puts Polish Government to Test” on Wednesday, August 21, Poland contracted with Rheinmetall to supply 50,000 rounds in 2022: “It’s already August 2024, and Poland hasn’t received a single round.”
A source at the Polish State Armaments Agency told the newspaper that “the contract fell through because of problems with Rheinmetall’s subcontractor, South African company Denel Munition from Cape Town.”
“The shipment of ammunition to Poland,” the source said, “has been blocked by the South African government for fear that the shells could reach Ukraine.” South Africa, together with Russia, is a member of the international group of BRICS countries. The current Polish-German scandal follows accusations by the German government that Polish authorities may have been involved in a terrorist attack on the Russian-German Nord Stream gas pipeline.
Finally, as the US Wall Street Journal wrote, after Israel launched its military operation in Gaza in October 2023, the Tel Aviv government embarked on a counter-course with the Kiev government to secure the supply of 155-mm shells.
