The German government's Security Council has approved the delivery of 178 Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine from industrial stocks, significantly more than previously announced, a source said, confirming earlier information from Spiegel magazine, Reuters reported.

The export of 178 Leopard 1s has been approved, a knowledgeable source told the agency.

Some will be shipped in the summer, but the bulk of the tanks will be delivered next year, Der Spiegel reported.

The information about the upcoming delivery of tanks appeared after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius unexpectedly appeared in Kyiv.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov published a photo on Twitter in which he and Pistorius pose against the background of a large-scale model of a tank.