'Ailing' Putin is flailing over his war strategy and torn between using nuclear weapons or admitting defeat and handing back invaded Ukrainian regions, claims Telegram channel
- Security officials have allegedly told Vladimir Putin he has run out of 'good' options over invasion of Ukraine
- The death toll in the Russian armed forces has reached 65,000, according to General SVR Telegram channel
- Ukrainian military counter strike likely to be 'effective', defense chiefs say, and would threaten his presidency
An ailing Vladimir Putin is flailing over his war strategy, torn between using nuclear weapons and accepting defeat and handing back Ukrainian regions invaded by his forces, a Telegram channel claims.
Amid fresh concerns over his health, his security officials have bluntly told the warmonger president that he has run out of 'good' options.
This comes as the death toll in the Russian armed forces plus separatist fighters and pro-Putin private armies has reached almost 65,000, said General SVR Telegram channel, an opposition source offering 'insider' information which the Kremlin is 'seeking to shut down'.
There is 'despondency' among Putin’s senior entourage that he had privately raised the 'extreme' option with 'top aides” of a 'goodwill' to cede newly invaded territories to Ukraine.
Security officials have allegedly told Vladimir Putin that he has run out of 'good' options after the death toll in the Russian armed forces is said to have reached almost 65,000
Recent explosions deep behind Russia's lines in Crimea have had a major psychological effect on Moscow's leadership, with its invasion of Ukraine at 'near operational standstill', Western officials have said. Pictured: Explosions are seen on Crimea in the distance on August 9
More than half of the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet combat jets were put out of action in blasts last week at the Russian-operated Saky military airfield in western Crimea, an area Moscow previously considered secure, according to Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD)
At the same time, there is a warning from his defence chiefs that a Ukrainian military counter strike is likely to be 'effective'.
Such an outcome would threaten his presidency, being seen as a humbling, crushing defeat.
But Putin’s leading officials are also said to be braced for a 'sharp deterioration' in his medical condition.
'With a high degree of probability, we can say that soon the president will not be able to personally hold meetings and participate in large events,' said the channel, which has long asserted the he suffers from cancer and other serious medical problems.
Putin’s absence will be explained as due to a return of the Covid pandemic, it was alleged.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Body doubles 'have also recently been used quite often', it alleged without specifying where or when.
In recent meetings with his security and defence aides, claimed General SVR, 'various options were discussed, from the possibility of mobilising and using tactical nuclear weapons, to opening a second front in a third country, and, finally, to "gestures of good will" with the return of the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions to Ukraine.'
A second front might involve an invasion of northern Kazakhstan, a region with many ethnic Russians, as a distraction to hide the ignominy of his failings in Ukraine.
He has so far rejected a full mobilisation, another option, amid fears it would trigger mass mutiny.
But an ‘extreme’ course was also discussed involving the return of land in the Luhansk and Donetsk 'people’s republic's' won during the almost six-month war, in addition to land in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, stated the channel.
Ukraine says Russia has told staff working at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant not to come to work today amid fears of a 'major provocation' there (file image)
Ukraine has begun rehearsing for a nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia amid explosions around the nearby Russian-occupied nuclear power plant, that it says are being caused by Moscow's troops
The discussion of the ‘extreme’ options in the presence and at the initiative of the President led many in his war team to 'despondency'.
'Without exception, all of Putin's interlocutors realised that the president simply does not have ‘good’ options for solving urgent and upcoming problems at the front.'
Such a move would amount to the 'beginning of the end' for his rule and the regime he heads.
The report also argued that military chiefs blame Putin for tactics which have led them to such heavy loses.
'Almost the entire military leadership of Russia lays the blame for both the unsuccessful start and, in general, the course of the military operation, and the huge losses of manpower and weapons, precisely on President Vladimir Putin,' said the channel.
Yet the military leadership 'has no doubt that they will be made guilty for all the failures and problems at the front'.
Vladimir Putin is pictured today with Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Russian generals allegedly discussed opening a second front might involving an invasion of northern Kazakhstan, a region with many ethnic Russians, as a distraction to hide the failings in Ukraine
Close Putin crony, hardliner Nikolai Patrushev, his leading security advisor and a key proponent of the war, urged Putin 'to find a way out of the current situation'.
Failure to do so would cause deeper problems if there was a successful counteroffensive by Ukraine.
The channel said Putin had been told the Russian death toll from his war now tops 60,400, including 48,745 from the regular forces, 2,366 from the country’s national guard, and 13,494 from Wagner and other private military companies.
Among the dead are at least a dozen generals and more than 100 colonels and lieutenant colonels.
Among the latest to perish was Lt-Col Ruslan Mukhametkhanov, 43, a father of two girls.
General SVR said the Kremlin is pressuring messenger outlet Telegram to axe it after a string of revelations.
The channel has claimed that Putin is suffering from serious illnesses including cancer, Parkinson’s disease and a schizoaffective disorder.
This channel is reportedly authored by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant-general, who is known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich.
It claims insider knowledge despite being hostile to Putin.
A Ukrainian solder smokes a cigarette somewhere on the frontlines in Zaporzhzhia province, amid campaign to force Russia out of the south of the country
Ukrainian service members observe an area at a position near a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Zaporizhzhia province
Moment Putin's closest aide Alexander Dugin holds head in his hands amid aftermath of Moscow car bomb that killed his daughter: Ukraine war mastermind is spotted at scene after Darya Dugin, 35, was 'assassinated in attack meant for her father'
Will Stewart for MailOnline
This is the moment Putin's aide Alexander Dugin watches the flaming wreckage of a car bomb meant for him that killed his daughter instead when the two switched vehicles last minute.
Dugin, a notorious fascist and Russian ultranationalist, is in hospital after being filmed at the scene of the explosion that killed his 35 year old daughter, Darya Dugina.
He was travelling on a highway near the village of Bolshiye Vyazyomy just outside the capital on Saturday night — but decided to travel in a different car to his daughter, avoiding death only by chance.
Vladimir Putin’s closest supporters have demanded vengeance on Ukraine over the ‘assassination’ of Dugina, daughter of the Russian leader’s spiritual guru, who died in his stead.
A distressing video from Baza media shows the bereft father - known as Putin’s ‘Rasputin’ - at the scene of the explosion.
The car is seen as a fireball as emergency services sirens wail. Reports said she died on the spot.
But her father - seen as the brains behind Putin’s interference in Ukraine from 2014 - was intended to be in the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado which was hit, but the former professor apparently switched cars at the last minute.
The explosion took place as Ms Dugina was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with her father.
Dugina was a political analyst and editor of pro-Putin journal United World International and a joint author of a book on Putin's war in Ukraine.
Her father is the author of an extreme rightwing view of Russia’s role in the world which held an appeal to Putin.
The pair were pictured together at a pro-Putin public event shortly before she was slain.
Andrey Krasnov, the head of the Russian Horizon social movement and a close friend of the dead woman, said: 'I knew Darya personally.
'This was the father’s vehicle. Darya… took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way. He returned, and he was at the site of the tragedy.
'As far as I understand, Alexander or probably both of them were the target.'
Alexander Dugin - father of 30-year-old Darya Dugina who died in the car explosion late on 20 August 2022 in Moscow region - is shown at the explosion site
The charred jeep where Darya Dugina, 30, was killed by an explosion on 20 August. 30-year-old Darya Dugina died in the car explosion late on 20 August 2022 in Moscow region
Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, branded the authors of the 'attack' 'vile villains'. (Pictured: Darya and Alexander Dugin)
Investigators work at the site of a suspected car bomb attack that killed Darya Dugina, daughter of ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, in the Moscow region, Russia August 21
Investigators are pictured inspecting the aftermath of the car bomb in Moscow. Much of the wreckage where Darya Dugina was killed has been cleared away to be used as evidence.
The car bombing is believed to have taken place in Bolshiye Vyazyomy, on the outskirts of Moscow
There is no direct evidence Ukraine or its agents were involved in the Moscow attack, but senior pro-Putin war supporters were quick to demand an all out attack on Kyiv over the alleged assassination.
Margarita Simonyan, head of RT ‘propaganda’ network, posted on Telegram: 'Decision-making centres! Decision-making centres!! Decision-making centres!!!'
Her call echoes a demand from hardliners loyal to Putin for him to wreak havoc with massive missile strikes on central Kyiv.
Propaganda journalist Maxim Kononenko messaged: 'The address of the main building of the SBU [Ukrainian secret services]: Volodymyrska 33, Kyiv. I'm going to try to sleep now, and when I wake up, I hope to read on the news that it was f****** bombed along with its basements.'
There were also warnings that other pro-Putin propagandists could be in danger.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic [DPR], a pro-Moscow puppet state in eastern Ukraine, posted: 'The terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to eliminate Alexander Dugin blew up his daughter...in a car. Blessed memory of Daria, she is a real Russian girl.'
He directly blamed 'terrorists of the Ukrainian regime'.
Dugina was described as 'a young, smart, beautiful and incredibly talented and sympathetic woman'.
While he has no formal role in government, Dugin, a far-Right occult writer who used to edit the staunchly pro-Putin Tsargrad TV network, is regarded as the Russian warmonger's 'guru advisor' and reportedly exerts heavy influence over him.
He is credited with giving new life to the term Novorossiya (New Russia), which was adopted by Putin to justify his annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Dugin has long dreamed of an expansionist Russia, advocating for Russian rule 'from Dublin to Vladisvostok' in his 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics. He once said not taking back control of Ukraine would be 'an enormous danger for all of Eurasia' - before he was sanctioned by the US in 2015 after allegedly recruiting fighters for Russia-backed forces in the country.
His daughter Darya was also sanctioned by the US Treasury after she became chief editor of the United World International (UWI) website - which was owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is suspected of interfering in the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
News of Alexander Dugin's attempted assassination comes after a kamikaze drone strike hit Russia's Navy headquarters in Crimea and sparked a huge explosion on Saturday, in another suspected Ukrainian raid.
Smoke was seen billowing through the air following the attack, which came despite frantic attempts from Putin's forces to shoot down the UAV, as seen in a video where repetitive gunfire is heard.
The naval HQ suffered a direct hit, said reports while terrified Russian tourists fled the popular summer peninsula.
No comments:
Post a Comment