04 March 2023 , 14:58
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has predicted that Vladimir Putin will eventually be murdered by his inner circle.
Putin’s inner circle is made up of hardliners including fellow former KGB officers whom he has known for decades.
Analysts have said previously said it's unlikely they would turn on their leader, but as Russia's battlefield failures have become more apparent, infighting has reared its head.
In a documentary to mark a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, Zelensky said: "There will definitely be a moment when the fragility of Putin's regime will be felt inside the [Russian] state.
Volodymyr Zelensky suggests Putin's inner circle will turn on the Russian President (Maksym Polishchuk/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)“Then carnivores will eat the carnivore. It is very important, and they will need a reason to justify this. They will recall the words of Komarov, of Zelensky…They will remember. They will find a reason to kill the killer. Will it work? Yes. When? I don’t know.”
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Last week there were tensions between the Russian army and the Wagner Group, when the latter's Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused top military leaders of "high treason" for allegedly refusing to provide him with munitions.
Zelensky has often appealed to Russians in their own language to speak out against the war.
“Unfortunately, they do not hear. There is a wall,” he said in the new documentary, called Year.
In December, the Washington Post reported that Putin’s closest allies are frustrated and are speculating he has no real plan for Ukraine.
One Russian billionaire who has ties with top-ranking officials told the newspaper: “There is huge frustration among the people around him. He clearly doesn’t know what to do.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, heads up the notorious Wagner group (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/REX/Shutterstock)The Washington Post reported that a Western intelligence official said: "Since the start of the occupation we have witnessed growing alarm from a number of Putin’s inner circle.
"Our assessments suggest they are particularly exercised by recent Russian losses, misguided direction and extensive military shortcomings."
A second senior Western official said the simmering tensions are "consistent with the way in which the campaign has gone for the Russians, and the atmospherics in the Kremlin".
"There are a lot of people who are convinced this isn’t going well or the right course of action," they added.
It comes as the Russian leader Mr Putin warned his people that they might not survive as a nation if Ukraine wins the war.
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Russia is now deploying the most experienced units of the mercenary Wagner group and its army in an attempt to seize the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian military has said.
Prigozhin said his fighters have “practically encircled” Bakhmut and claimed that only one road remains under Ukrainian control. In a video posted online, he called on Zelensky, to abandon the city.