Russia is determined to test the resolve of the Nato alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, Germany’s foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organisation.

Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had intelligence indicating that Russian officials believed the collective defence obligations enshrined in the Nato treaty no longer had practical force.

“We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward,” Mr Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview.

“That doesn’t mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards,” he added. “But we see that Nato’s collective defence promise is to be tested.”

Germany, already the second-largest provider of armaments and financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory.

Without detailing the nature of his intelligence sources, Mr Kahl said Russian officials were envisaging confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement that would test whether the US would really live up to its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

Russia launched a massive drone attack on Ukraine overnight, killing one person and damaging swathes of Kyiv and striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, regional officials said early this morning.

The strikes followed Russia’s biggest drone assault on Ukraine yesterday – part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv’s recent brazen attacks in Russia.

At least four people were hospitalised as a result of the hours-long attacks that hit seven of the city’s 10 districts, city officials said.

Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5am, according to military data.

“A difficult night for all of us,” Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military district, said on Telegram. “Throughout the night, the enemy relentlessly terrorised Kyiv with attack drones. They targeted civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of the city.”

The attack sparked fires in residential and non-residential neighbourhoods and open space areas, city officials said. Reuters’ witnesses heard and saw countless loud explosions shaking the city and lighting the night sky.

Photos and videos posted on Telegram channels showed heavy smoke rising in the darkness in different parts of Kyiv. The scale of the attack was not immediately known.

Speaking at Chatham House in London, Mr Rutte was asked if he believed chancellor Rachel Reeves should be raising taxes to meet Nato’s defence spending commitments.

He replied: “It’s not up to me to decide, of course, how countries pay the bill. I mean, what I know is that if we want to keep our societies safe.

But he added: “Look, if you do not do this, if you would not go to the 5 per cent, including the 3.5 per cent core defence spending, you could still have the National Health Service, or in other countries their health systems, the pension system, et cetera, but you had better learn to speak Russian.”

Mr Rutte would not reveal the deadline for when he hopes Nato allies will spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence.

Asked about a deadline, he told reporters: “I have a clear view on when we should achieve that. I keep that to myself, because we are having these consultations now with allies, and these discussions are ongoing, and we will in the end agree on a date when we have to be there.”

Nato chief Mark Rutte has warned that we are “all on the eastern flank now” as he outlined plans to “transform” the Western military alliance in the face of threats from Russia and China.

“I know we can count on the United Kingdom as we start the next chapter for Nato,” Mark Rutte said in comments at Chatham House in London.

The Nato secretary-general said: “Russia is reconstituting its forces with Chinese technology and producing more weapons faster than we thought. In terms of ammunition, Russia produces in three months what the whole of Nato produces in a year.”

Warning that Russia could be ready to use force against Nato within five years, Mr Rutte said: “We are all on the eastern flank now. “The new generation of Russian missiles travel at many times the speed of sound. The distance between European capitals is only a matter of minutes. There is no longer east or west. There is just Nato.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a celebratory post on X as he welcomed home prisoners of war that are wounded, severely wounded, and those under the age of 25 from Russian captivity.

He said: “Our people are home.Ukrainians are returning home from Russian captivity. “Today, an exchange began, which will continue in several stages over the coming days. “Among those we are bringing back now are the wounded, the severely wounded, and those under the age of 25. The process is quite complex, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day,” he said.