It is feared the despot plans to blow up the Kherson dam, causing extensive death and destruction and framing Ukraine for the disaster.
It would cause “catastrophe on a grand scale”, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Putin is also believe to be planning “false flag” attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, to which the dam’s hydroelectric station helps supply cooling water. It is feared this could come “as a prelude to tactical nuclear weapons”.
But the Russian leader’s own recruits are growing increasingly uneasy over the conflict, complaining about appalling conditions and threatening to turn their ire on to the Kremlin.
A video broadcast on a Telegram social media channel showed a uniformed soldier addressing at least 50 others in a forest clearing.
He berates the lack of equipment given to conscripts and encourages Russians to topple their rulers over the war.
It was filmed in the impoverished Tuva region of Siberia – which has suffered a particularly high death toll of troop deaths – ahead of the unit’s deployment 3,200 miles away.
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