Shaun
Russian forces launched a devastating five-hour drone assault on Kyiv on Tuesday in one of the largest attacks on the capital of the war so far. President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones at Ukraine overnight, killing a total of seven people. Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said four people were injured in the attack on the capital, which sparked fires across the city.
In a statement posted on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said: “Every night, instead of a ceasefire, there have been massive strikes with Shaheds, cruise missiles and ballistics. Today was one of the largest strikes on Kyiv. Odesa, the Dnipro region and Chernihiv region were also targeted.”
The attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war. Kyiv had been anticipating a strong Russian response to its Operation Spider Web attack on June 1 that hit Russian aircraft.
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.
