The German Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the German company Rheinmetall for the production of 35-mm ammunition for the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, which are in service with the Ukrainian military.
This is reported by the Reuters agency with reference to the statement of the Minister of Defense of Germany, Boris Pistorius.
"We will quickly start our own production of ammunition for the Gepard at Rheinmetall. I am very pleased that we have been able to guarantee the supply of this important part of air defense," Pistorius said.
The agency notes that Germany has been trying for months to find 35-mm ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft guns, which its own military decommissioned in 2010.
Gepard anti-aircraft guns are armed with 35-mm guns produced by the Swiss company Oerlikon. Berlin repeatedly appealed to the country's authorities with a request to allow the re-export of ammunition to Ukraine, but Bern refused each time.
Switzerland is committed to neutrality, which prohibits it from supplying arms to countries at war.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, as early as the spring of 2022, Brazil announced its readiness to transfer Gepard anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine, but this was never done due to Switzerland's ban.
We also wrote that on February 10, the Swiss government announced that it did not allow Spain to hand over to Ukraine two anti-aircraft guns of 35-mm caliber, the manufacturer of which is the Swiss company Oerlikon.
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