The largest German arms manufacturer, the Rheinmetallwill open an armored vehicle manufacturing plant in Ukraine in twelve weeks, the company’s CEO told CNN in an interview, Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reports.

The plant will be built in the western part of Ukraine, said Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger. The company will also train Ukrainians to maintain tanks as well as armored vehicles. According to the CEO, the new plant will manufacture and repair licensed Rheinmetall Fuchs armored personnel carriers.

“(Ukrainians) have to help themselves – if they always have to wait for the Europeans or the Americans to help them in the next 10 or 20 years… that’s not possible,” said Paperger. Rheinmetall (RNMBF) will operate the plant in partnership with Ukroboronprom, which will also own the business. In May, the two companies announced an agreement to increase Ukraine’s defense technology capabilities.

Papperger added that the plant would be protected from Russian attacks.

“There are a lot of factories right now making military items (in Ukraine). This is one more and we can also protect it,” he said.

According to him, next year Rheinmetall will increase its annual production of artillery shells from 100,000 to 600,000, and a significant part of this additional production will be sent to Ukraine.

Papperger stressed that Rheinmetall can theoretically meet 60% of Ukraine’s demand for artillery ammunition.

According to reports, on the order of the German government, the Rheinmetall defense group will send another 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine in the summer.

Rheinmetall also produces Leopard tanks, anti-aircraft defense systems Skynexand the Marder infantry fighting vehicles.

In March it became known that the German company started talks with Kiev about the production of tanks in Ukraine. The cost of building the factory is estimated at 200 million dollars. As well as being able to manufacture up to 400 tanks per year.

In February, the newspaper The Telegraph wrote, citing sources, that the British and the French had also discussed the possibility of joint production of military equipment in Ukraine with Kiev. But experts had warned that such a factory could be an easy target for mass bombing by the Russian military.