On Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Warsaw could transfer its Leopard tanks to Ukraine without Germany's consent.
"It will become clear in the next few hours or tomorrow," Pistorius said in an interview with German broadcaster ARD when asked if Berlin would allow other countries to supply Leopard tanks to Kiev.
Pistorius also recalled the amount of weapons supplied by Germany to Ukraine and added that "it is impossible to ignore the accusations" that Germany was not doing enough for Ukraine.
On the same day, Pistorius told German broadcaster ZDF that Germany had not yet received requests from Poland to lift export restrictions on the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
"To my knowledge, no requests have been received to date… If Poland, as it says, does this without permission, then we will comment on this. I do not find this particularly friendly to Alliance," Pistorius said.
He added that Germany did not exclude the possibility of supplying its tanks to Kiev.
"We support Ukraine wherever we can. Nobody excludes that Leopard tanks can be supplied, or that other European partners can be approved for this," Pistorius noted.
In order to send German-made tanks to Ukraine, countries need to obtain German permission to lift export restrictions. In addition to Germany and Poland, Leopard tanks are put into service in Spain, Greece, Finland and Denmark.
In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev after Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons contributed nothing to the success of peace negotiations and would have a detrimental effect on the conflict.