Reznikov tells how Wallace convinced Pistorius to give Ukraine tanks over coffee

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in a commentary to RBC-Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Ben Wallace persuaded the newly appointed German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to train on Leopards in Germany in January 2023 during a coffee break at the Ramstein meeting, which gave a decisive impetus for Berlin to decide to transfer the tanks to Ukraine.  

"We proposed a tank coffee break at one of the Ramstein meetings. There were 15-16 countries left. Pistorius was already there, two days as minister. He stayed. Then he said that there was no political solution for Leopard. Ben Wallace suggested that since we will be training Ukrainians on German training grounds with the Challenger, let's do it with the Leopards as well. Borys Pistorius said, 'I don't see any problems with training, let's do it,'" Reznikov said.

He added that he proposed to talk about this at a press conference following Ramstein.   

"We did. And I remember, at the end of that Ramstein, I said in my closing speech: thank you for a productive day, and I think I can already hear the leopards roaring in the hall. Everyone smiled, everyone understood everything, and they looked at Pistorius. A few days later, Scholz said that they were already giving us tanks," Reznikov said.

• On January 24, 2023, it became known that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to approve the supply of battle tanks to Ukraine and allow the allies to do so.