Europe

GENEVA, January 17. /TASS/: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos did not directly answer a question as to whether his country will allow delivering its Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

"We are supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary with all the means that we can use," Scholz said, adding that the aim is to "avoid that this is going to be a war between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for expediting the unblocking of traffic along the Lachin corridor, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday after his telephone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov.

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has introduced a draft bill to the State Duma which proposes to terminate the Statute of the Council of Europe and European conventions on the suppression of terrorism and protection of human rights with regards to Russia.

The document was published on the Duma’s electronic database on Tuesday.

BELGRADE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Russia should halt its efforts to recruit Serbs to fight alongside its Wagner paramilitary group in Ukraine, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.

Vucic criticised Russia's websites and social media groups for publishing advertisements in the Serbian language in which the Wagner group calls volunteers to join its ranks.

“Why do you, from Wagner, call anyone from Serbia when you know that it is against our regulations?” Vucic said late on Monday in a broadcast by the Belgrade-based Happy TV.

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday that it would make "major changes" to its armed forces from 2023 to 2026, promising to shake up its military structure after months of setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine.

In addition to administrative reforms, the Defence Ministry said it would strengthen the combat capabilities of its naval, aerospace and strategic missile forces.

DNIPRO, Ukraine/KYIV, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine came a step closer on Tuesday to winning the fleet of modern battle tanks it hopes could turn the course of the war against Russia, after the West's big holdout Germany said this would be the first item on its new defence minister's agenda.

In the central city of Dnipro, authorities called an end to the search for survivors in the ruins of an apartment building destroyed during Russian missile attacks on Saturday.

LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The British government will block a bill passed by the Scottish parliament that makes it easier for people to change their legal gender, its Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said on Monday, the first time it has invoked the power to veto a Scottish law.

The move sparked a fresh argument with the devolved Scottish government, which has also been thwarted in its attempts to hold a new independence referendum.

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A former commander of Russia's Wagner mercenary group who fought in Ukraine said he has fled to Norway and is seeking asylum in fear for his life after witnessing the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners brought to front lines.

Andrei Medvedev, who joined Wagner on July 6, 2022 on a four-month contract, said in a video posted by the Gulagu.net rights group that he had crossed the northern Arctic border into Norway before being detained by Norwegian police.

MOSCOW, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the country's oil production increased by 2 percent over the past year despite Western sanctions, according to the Kremlin.

"I would especially like to talk about the oil and gas sector. Despite the previously mentioned sanctions pressure, oil production in Russia increased by about two percent in 2022," Putin said.

"The volume of production amounted to 535 million tons," he added.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- As this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting commenced here on Monday, a series of issues that perplex humanity have come under global spotlight, including the energy crisis, high inflation and geopolitical conflicts.