Europe

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Russia reacted with fury on Wednesday to Germany's decision to approve the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, saying Berlin was abandoning its "historical responsibility to Russia" arising from Nazi crimes in World War Two.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Telegram post that the move was confirmation of Germany's involvement in "a war planned in advance" against Russia.

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Germany announced plans to deliver heavy tanks to Ukraine, and the United States was poised to do so too, a breakthrough hailed as a decisive military boost by Kyiv and condemned by Moscow as a reckless provocation.

ARMAMENTS

* Germany announced plans to send an initial company of 14 Leopard 2 tanks from its own stocks, and also approve shipments by allies who field them, with the aim of supplying Ukraine with two full battalions.

* Poland and Britain, which have pledged 14 tanks each, welcomed the decision.

FRANKFURT, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Armin Papperger is on a roll.

On Tuesday, the chief executive of Germany defence champion Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE) nudged up the group's mid-term sales outlook in anticipation of a windfall from higher defence spending due to the war in Ukraine.

A day later, Germany's long-awaited decision to send heavy Leopard tanks to Ukraine, which Rheinmetall produces jointly with peer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, pushed shares in the nearly 134-year old firm to a record high.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities have arrested a retired man on suspicion he sent six letters containing explosive material to Spain’s prime minister and the U.S. and Ukrainian embassies in the country, police said in a statement.

The 74-year-old Spanish national was arrested in the northern city of Miranda de Ebro and was “very active” on social media, police said. They added that authorities “do not rule out the participation or influence of other people” in the case, and a search of the man’s home was still under way.

BERLIN (AP) — A man stabbed and wounded several people on a train in northern Germany on Wednesday before police detained him, German news agency dpa reported.

Germany’s Federal Police force said the man used a knife to attack several passengers shortly before the regional train traveling from Kiel to Hamburg arrived at the Brokstedt station. An initial investigation indicated seven people were wounded, the police agency said.

It was not immediately clear how severe their injuries were. The train station in Brokstedt was closed for several hours, dpa reported.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces have conducted an organized retreat from a town in the eastern region of the Donbas, an official said Wednesday, in what amounted to a rare but modest battlefield triumph for Russia after a series of setbacks in its invasion that began almost 11 months ago.

The Ukrainian army retreated from the salt mining town of Soledar to “preserve the lives of personnel,” Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, told The Associated Press.

LONDON (AP) — Microsoft said it’s seeing some improvement to problems with its online services including the Teams messaging platform and Outlook email system after users around the world reported outages Wednesday.

In a status update, the tech company reported “service degradation” for a number of its Microsoft 365 services.

BERLIN (AP) — After weeks of hesitation that created impatience among Germany’s allies, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Wednesday that his government would provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks and approve requests by other countries to do the same.

The German government said it would initially provide Ukraine with one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks, or 14 vehicles. The goal is for Germany and its allies to provide Ukraine with 88 of the German-made Leopards, which comprise two battalions.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/: The Russian Airborne Force’s artillery destroyed a US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar in the Kherson area over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

"In the Kherson direction, the Airborne Force’s artillery wiped out a US-manufactured AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar near the community of Antonovka in the Kherson Region," the spokesman said.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/: Russia’s adversaries are monitoring arms production in the country, but they are in for a disappointment, since Russia has plenty of everything, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said.

On Tuesday, Medvedev visited the Kalashnikov plant in Izhevsk and held a meeting of a working group under the Military-Industrial Commission on the supervision of production of essential weapons and military vehicles.