Putin fears he will be KILLED and is “fighting for his life” in Ukraine because “there is no forgiveness for tsars who lose wars in Russia,” claims a senior Ukrainian figure

Vladimir Putin is “fighting for his life” and fears he will be killed if Russia suffers another setback after the liberation of Kherson, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official has claimed.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said the shock seizure of Russian-held territory had dramatically increased fears in the Kremlin that Ukraine would win the war.

According to The Times, he said: “[Putin] is very afraid because in Russia there is no forgiveness for tsars who lose wars.

Now he is fighting for his life. If he loses the war, it will mean the end, at least in the minds of Russians. The end of him as a political figure. And possibly in a physical sense.’

A municipal official tears down a pro-Russian billboard after the Kremlin leaves Kherson

Kherson’s immense importance to the Kremlin – both for its connection to Russia’s annexed Crimea and the Ukrainian port city of Odessa to the west – made it an embarrassment for Putin when he ordered his troops to withdraw last week.

It is Ukraine’s biggest conquest in that war and has led to renewed Russian attacks and plans for a new offensive from Belarus, Arestovich said.

He added: “It has made even people who are very loyal to Putin doubt that they can win this war.”

Arestovich says that Russian troops will launch an offensive from Belarus to the Donbass and will also try to capture the Rivne nuclear power plant.

Russian strikes have already devastated the region, and last week one of the plant’s four units was shut down.

Arestovich believes the strikes, which have halved Ukraine’s power capacity, are a form of “blackmail” to force Ukraine and its allies into talks with the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian army fires a captured Russian T-80 tank on the Russian position in the Donetsk region

Putin would claim the occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions for himself, which he would consider a Russian victory, the adviser says.

But the citizens are unlikely to be too impressed by the territorial gains, as the Russians have already expressed their displeasure over the costly war against the despot.

Angry conscript wives and mothers mocked the leader and said, “Are you a man?” because he refused to meet her.

The women even claimed that the warlord sent his civilian security spies to oversee their campaign to get their family members out of the war zone.

The Russian leader is soon to meet mothers of mobilized troops, but protesting family members say they will be singled out by the Kremlin in a choreographed session without hard questions about the fate of their “cannon fodder” men.

In a provocative video, mother Olga Tsukanova (46) from Samara, whose son (20) went missing after the mobilization, demanded: “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]Are you a man or something?’

Ukrainian firefighters work today on a damaged maternity ward of a hospital in Vilniansk, Zaporizhia region.

In a sign of growing opposition to his war and rumors of a new round of mobilisations, the brave warrior, head of the Mothers and Women’s Council, asked: “Do you have the courage to face us – open to women to meet?” which was not specially chosen for you…?

“Women who are not in your pocket but real mothers who have traveled from different cities at their own expense to meet you?

“We are here in Moscow and ready to meet you. We expect a reply from you.

“Are you going to keep hiding from us?”

Dmitri Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, has already said that the 70-year-old Putin will not meet these women, but those who believe in his war.

The Council accuses Putin’s commanders of issuing “punitive orders” that put the lives of their loved ones at risk.

In a provocative video, mother Olga Tsukanova (46) from Samara, whose son (20) went missing after the mobilization, demanded: “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]Are you a man or something?’

Viktoria Usmanova from Tomsk holds a placard that reads: “Putin, invite women from the Council of Mothers and Women to the November 27 meeting. We are the mothers!’

Tsukanova claimed that the lack of women in the Kremlin and Putin’s power structures is a major cause of the war crisis that has gripped Russia and Ukraine.

“We have men in the Department of Defense, in the military prosecutor’s office, in the presidential administration – they are all men, including [you] — the president,” she said.

And mothers are on the other side of the divide.

“Well, are you all going out for a chat – or are you just going to hide?”

The women called for a “round table” with Putin’s officials on the treatment of mobilized men.

It later emerged that the women were specifically used for Soviet-style snooping.

In another video, Tsukanova said: “So this is how they react to contact [Putin’s] Government…

Reports are mounting about the poor conditions of the more than 300,000 people mobilized by Putin (Photo: mobilization in Voronezh)

Relatives of those mobilized from the Vladimir region, who were sent to the front near Svatovo without proper equipment and training, turned to Putin and urged him to “act”.

“We have been running away from pursuers since early morning while they openly follow us.

“Instead of following the women’s call, they sent some people from the power structures to follow our activists.

“I believe this is an attempt to disrupt the event or put pressure on us.

“We are going to make it public.

“If something goes wrong, you know we’ve been in contact with these people in the energy system: the Department of the Interior, the president’s office, the Department of Defense, the military prosecutors, the human rights commissioner.

“We were here.”

The US estimates that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers were killed or maimed in the war.

Reports are mounting of the poor conditions of the more than 300,000 people mobilized by Putin, with little training, poor weapons, inadequate clothing and absent commanders.

Peskov said a meeting was arranged with some of the mothers.

But the long-established Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers was not invited either, said the head of this established human rights organization, Valentina Melnikova (76).

She told Werstka: “We were not invited.

“When they invite us, we think.

“What should we talk to Putin about? We are a peace organization.”

Kremlin sources indicate that they may form their own loyalist and “patriotic” group of mothers and wives who will not criticize Putin.

The Council wants untrained conscripts removed from Ukraine and neighboring regions.

Putin promised not to go to the front, but that promise was broken.

They asked, “Why has it become a crime in our country to speak the truth?

“The army is discredited not by those who clarify the truth, but by those who issue criminal orders, release war criminals without trial or investigation, who throw conscripts under artillery fire.”