He made the statement on Twitter.
The minister also emphasized for those who doubted the possibility of transferring tanks that nothing is impossible for Ukraine and its partners.
“So the tank coalition is formed. Everyone who doubted this could ever happen sees now: for Ukraine and partners impossible is nothing. I call on all new partners that have Leopard 2 tanks in service to join the coalition and provide as many of them as possible,” he tweeted.
Earlier, during the 8th meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine's Defense in Ramstein on January 20, the provision of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine was not agreed upon.
Ukraine has agreed to train its tank crews on German Leopard 2 and British Challenger 2 tanks, the training will begin soon.
On January 22, the United Kingdom announced it supports an international agreement to provide Ukraine with German tanks.
As of January 22, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Warsaw was open to forming a coalition with countries that were willing to give Ukraine some of their Leopard 2 tanks without Germany's participation if Berlin did not agree to provide Ukraine with these tanks.
On January 23, the Polish foreign ministry announced that it would send Germany an official request for permission to transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine in the coming days.
The German military-industrial concern Rheinmetall is ready to transfer 139 Leopard tanks to Ukraine as soon as the government gives permission.
On January 24, media reported that US President Joe Biden is ready to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine to encourage Germany to supply Leopard tanks.
Following the latest negotiations, Ukraine expects to receive about 100 Leopard tanks from 12 countries.
On January 24, after several months of debate, Chancellor Scholz decided to approve the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine and allow the allies to do so.