Russia planning attack on NATO as a test, says Germany spy chief

Vladimir Putin is plotting to attack a NATO territory to test the bloc's mutual assistance clause, Germany's spy chief has warned.

Bruno Kahl, the outgoing head of Germany's federal intelligence service (BND), said in a rare interview that it has 'concrete' evidence that Russia no longer believes NATO's Article 5 will be honoured.

This is the clause which guarantees that if one member is attacked, all others will come to its aid.

He told the German podcast Table Briefings: 'We see that NATO is supposed to be tested in its mutual assistance promise. There are people in Moscow who don't believe that NATO article 5 still works.'

He said: 'We are very sure, and we have intelligence evidence to back this up, that [Russia's full-scale invasion of] Ukraine is only one step on Russia's path towards the west.'