During his performance at Leipzigs Quarterback Immobilien Arena on Friday (14 June), Stewart had the Ukrainian flag projected on to the large screen behind him.

Roisin O’Connor reports:

Ukraine’s air force said its air defence systems destroyed all 10 drones that Russia launched overnight targeting the country.

The drones were destroyed over Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Vladimir Putin congratulated South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa on his re-election as president yesterday, reflecting continued good relations with Pretoria despite uncertainty over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

“Hope was expressed for continued joint work on further strengthening of the partnership between Russia and South Africa in all its aspects,” a statement on the Kremlin website said, referring to Mr Putin’s telephone call to Mr Ramaphosa.

Mr Ramaphosa was re-elected by parliament on Friday. But the failure of his African National Congress party to win a majority in last month’s election, for the first time in 30 years, prompted the formation of a government made up – so far – of five parties.

Russia and Ukraine have jostled for support from African nations since the 2022 invasion, with each country’s foreign minister embarking on several tours of the continent.

South Africa initially denounced Russia’s February 2022 invasion, but has since adopted a more nuanced position and abstained on several votes in the UN General Assembly condemning Russian actions.

South Africa attended the “peace summit” on Ukraine held in Switzerland over the weekend. But it declined to sign the final communique, along with India, Indonesia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia, even though some contentious issues were omitted in the hope of drawing wider support.

Oil depots were on fire after a drone attack early this morning in the town of Azov in Russia’s Rostov region, the governor of the southern Russian region said.

“According to preliminary data, there are no casualties,” the governor, Vasily Golubev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The summit is expected to address what Nato and Nato members can do for Ukraine as it faces unrelenting air and ground attacks from Russia.

They so far have resisted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s appeals to take his country into the bloc as long as the war is still on.

Nato general secretary Jens Stoltenberg pointed to efforts to bolster Ukraine in the meantime. They include Nato streamlining the eventual membership process for Ukraine, and Nato nations providing updated arms and training to Ukraine’s military, including the US giving it F-16s and bringing Ukrainian pilots to the US for training on the advanced aircraft.

“The idea is to move them so close to membership that when the time comes, when there is consensus, they can become a member straight away,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

However, Russia’s offensive concludes, just taking Ukraine into the alliance will dissuade Vladimir Putin from trying again in the future to conquer Ukraine, the Nato chief claimed.“When the fighting ends, Nato membership” for Ukraine “assures that the war really ends”, he said.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg noted that allies were buying more military equipment from the US. “So Nato is good for US security, but Nato is also good for US jobs.” he said.

Nato members agreed last year to spend at least two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence. The surge in spending reflects the worries about the war in Ukraine.

Poland, at more than four per cent, and tiny Estonia both lead the United States this year in the percentage of their GDP they spend on defence. Both countries border Russia.

Defence spending across European allies and Canada was up nearly 18 per cent this year alone, the biggest increase in decades, according to Nato’s estimated figures released yesterday.

Some countries are concerned about the possible reelection of former president Donald Trump, who has characterised many Nato allies as freeloading on US military spending and said on the campaign trail that he would not defend Nato members that don’t meet defence spending targets.

“Shifting US administrations have had the absolutely valid point to say that US allies are spending too little,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

“The good news is that’s changing.”

A record 23 of Nato’s 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance’s defense spending target this year, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised the threat of expanding conflict in Europe.

The estimated figure is a nearly fourfold increase from 2021, when only six nations were meeting the goal. That was before Russian president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Europeans are doing more for their collective security than just a few years ago,” Mr Stoltenberg said in a speech at the Wilson Center research group.

After the speech, Mr Stoltenberg met at the White House with president Joe Biden. The US president said the alliance has become “larger, stronger and more united than it’s ever been” during Mr Stoltenberg’s tenure.

Mr Biden spoke affectionately of Mr Stoltenberg, calling him “pal” and saying he wished that Stoltenberg, who has been Nato’s secretary general since 2014, could serve another term when the current one expires in October.

“Together, we’ve deterred further Russian aggression in Europe,” Mr Biden said. “We’ve strengthened Nato’s eastern flank, making it clear that we’ll defend every single inch of Nato territory.”