He doesn't need one. If he thought he could take on NATO he would just attack. Maybe fabricate some shitty justification that's paper thin. "Zelensky is a Nazi" was the best he would bother with for Ukraine, an inseparable Slavic brother nation.
Don't forget pretty much everything Ukraine is using now came from our factories, so this would just be one more thing. I suppose it would be imprudent to advertise it as Ukrainian staffed.
I mean don't get me wrong, I don't support war (crimes) and Russia is the illegally aggressively invading Ukraine. But wouldn't it be smarter to build the factory on the Polish side or something. How can this not be a risk and safety hazard for anyone to go near. It is literally a strategic military target and Russia most probably really wants to shell and rocket the fuck out of this building?! People are supposed to work there?
Yes, they won't be any less safe than the facilities Ukraine already has, but it makes sense that there is a certain amount produced right at home, just as it makes sense, that an Ukrainen company builds its factory in Ukraine.
What I am saying is Rheimetall has valid options outside of Ukraine, why take the risk that the workers are hurt in any way? Of course the big suit guy from the billion dollar weapons comapany doesn't work in that factory himself.
Besides that, the workers employed there could actually be safer than sent on the frontline. So for them, working for Rheinmetall could be an advantage.
Rheinmetall also seems to ramp up investment in neighboring countries as well (in Romania at least).
First of all that is not the only factory they are building. Rheinmetall is ramping up capacity accross the board and for example just laid ground for another one in Germany that is planned to produced 200k shells/year, So what you are suggesting is also being done
This one specifically seems to be a joint venture with an ukrainian company, so it makes sense that they'd want to have that in their own country. Especially because that makes it less dependent on any other political shifts and longterm they will definitely want to have their own capacities anyways.
It's definitely a strategic military target, but this isn't being build on the frontlines. I am pretty sure Ukraine right now will already have some factories producing military products that aren't being hit. If it's further back and you put an IRIST-T or Patriot battery in the vicinity, then Russia likely won't have the ability to damage it.
