Putin 'shocks' military officers with impossible demands and 'orders them to capture Zelensky's birthplace' - as former KGB agent says he is so paranoid he can 'be compared to Stalin' and probably has dementia

• Putin is though to have assumed command of day-to-day operations in Ukraine
• The Russian President is desperate to get results by Victory Day in Russia, May 9
• He has reportedly ordered his forces to take Kryvyi Rih - Zelensky's hometown 
• Members of Putin's inner circle are likely being kept in the dark over his deteriorating health, said an ex-KGB agent who defected to the West
• Boris Karpichkov said Putin is becoming 'obsessed by paranoid ideas'
• Putin can be compared with Stalin who lived his last years in paranoia, he added
• He believes the Russian president is suffering from Parkinson's and dementia

By TOM BROWN and WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE-2 May 2022 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is believed to have taken full control over the war in Ukraine and is making 'impossible demands' as his forces continue to assault the eastern Donbas region.

Putin has assumed 'day-to-day control' over the conflict and has largely delegated the running of Russia to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, according to a senior EU source cited by MD of the Eurasia Group, Mujaba Rahman.

The Russian President has wasted no time in making a series of major demands in an attempt to secure some success in Ukraine ahead of Russia's May 9 Victory Day celebrations. 

One such demand is for his troops to take Kryvyi Rih - the birthplace of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - according to a report from the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces.

But seizing a city of roughly one million represents a mammoth task for his forces, which are already engaged in bloody battles along the eastern front and are believed to have lost almost 25,000 men in just nine and a half weeks of fighting. 

It comes as an ex-KGB agent who defected to the West has said members of Putin's inner circle may be kept in the dark about his physical state.

Boris Karpichkov, a former KBG agent who defected from Russia, told The Sun that Putin was 'insane' and becoming 'obsessed by paranoid ideas'.

'He sees literally everyone, including those inside the Russian security services and even inside his close inner circle, to be "traitors"', he said.

Putin may be keeping those closest to him unaware of his health difficulties, in under to maintain his strongman image, said Karpichkov.

'He is so suspicious and so obsessed with his paranoia ideas that he can be now compared with Stalin tyrant,' he added. 

Boris Karpichkov, a former KBG agent who defected from Russia, said Putin was 'insane' and becoming 'obsessed by paranoid ideas'. He says the Russian president is suffering from Parkinson's and early stage dementia

The defected KGB agent said the Russian president is known among his circle as obsessive over details, with a reputation for remembering faces and conversations. But his recent behaviour marks a change in character

 

 Bloated Putin was seen gripping a table while slouching in his chair during a televised meeting with his defence minister Sergei Shoigu. He has been unable to shake cancer rumours

Putin seen 'gripping table, slouching and constantly tapping foot'

Stalin's last years were marked by paranoia and mistrust. He had one of his doctors imprissoned after he suggested the dictator should retire from political life to try and improve his health.

By 1952, the Kremlin was rounding up doctors and torturing them for allegedly plotting to kill senior politicians, resulting in most medical professionals fleeing the country.

Putin has also begun to interrogate doctors — in an echo of Stalin's last years.

In February, Russian authorities interrogated Professor Valery Solovey, 61, for seven hours over the regular claims about Putin's supposed medical and mental condition.

Solovoy was a professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, attended by future top diplomats and spies. 

Professor Solovey has been linked to the Telegram channel General SVR which reported on Saturday that Putin may be forced to give up control of the war in Ukraine for days as he is set for cancer surgery.

It said the Russian dictator will reportedly nominate hardline Security Council head and ex-FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev to take control of the invasion while he is under the knife, after having personally taken control of on-the-ground operations.

The surgery had been scheduled for the second half of April but was delayed, SVR claimed.

It will now not take place before the Victory Day commemoration of Russia's World War Two victory in Red Square on May 9, the person alleged.

General SVR reported that Putin has abdominal cancer and Parkinson's 18 months ago.

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Putin's press secretary has insisted Putin's health is 'excellent', but several videos and photos have emerged suggesting the Russian president may be enjoying less than perfect health. 

The former KGB-agent listed Parkinson's, cancer, or another medical condition as an explanation for his odd behaviour, adding his voice to the list of commentators speculating over Putin's health. 

'I am not a medic myself... but there is a serious concern that Putin is suffering from numerous physical health conditions - possibly from the sport injuries during his younger years,' he added.

'This is along with some issues which affect older people - such as Dementia in the early stages.'

Karpichkov said the Russian president is known among his circle as obsessive over details, with a reputation for remembering faces and conversations.

Unsteady Putin's hand shakes uncontrollably in resurfaced clip

The tell-tale tremor of a doomed tyrant: How Putin's 'uncontrollable' shaking hand bears the hallmarks of Hitler's Parkinson's disease 

Amid rumours about his poor health, a video showing Vladimir Putin's shaking hand as he greeted Belarus's leader resurfaced earlier this month.

The clip, which was filmed just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, showed him gripping a chair and pressing his hand to his chest to stop it shaking as he greeted Alexander Lukashenko.

It fueled further speculation of the state of his health after footage and images appeared to show his bloated face and slouching posture.

But the scenes of Putin's apparent struggles are reminiscent of a clip that showed Adolf Hitler's own failing health as Germany faced total defeat in the Second World war.

A resurfaced video showing Vladimir Putin's hand shaking as he greeted Belarus's leader Aleksander Lukashenko in February is reminiscent of a clip that revealed Adolf Hitler's own failing health as his country faced total defeat in the Second World War. 

In what was one of the last times the dictator was seen alive outside of his Berlin bunker, a propaganda video filmed in April 1945 showed him decorating members of the Hitler Youth who had been called up to defend Berlin.

The film was supposed to show how Hitler was still in command, even as the Soviet Union's troops closed on the capital.

But a telling part of the footage was cut from the final version and was supposed to have been destroyed.

The clip, which was discovered in an East German film laboratory in the 1970s, showed the Nazi leader's left hand shaking violently as he held it behind his back while greeting military officers during the same trip outside his bunker.

Many historians and experts believe that Hitler was suffering from Parkinson's disease at the time the video was filmed. The condition hampers muscle control and impairs mobility.

British historian Richard Evans previously told how Hitler began to show symptoms of Parkinson's disease earlier in the war.

He told the Smithsonian Channel in 2014 that symptoms of shaking in his left hand were 'for a time' cured after he was injured by the bomb that went off in the 1944 attempt on his life.

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'He had a shake in his left hand and for a time that was cured as it were by the bomb that went off on July 20, 1944.

'As he said, that's not the way I would choose of curing it. But soon after that, the shaking came back in his right side.

'He began to drag his feet and shuffle. He began to speak in a more flat, less animated sort of way. Normally.'

Comparisons of footage filmed in 1940 and 1944 showed how Hitler's mobility had appeared to decline during the course of the war.

Surviving records show how Hitler's personal doctor Theodor Morell first noted Hitler's tremor in 1941 but put it down to stress.

Then, in the final days of the war, he concluded that Hitler was suffering from 'shaking palsy' - the original name for Parkinson's disease.

As well as impairing thought processes, Parkinson's can impair posture and muscle control.

Hitler killed himself inside his bunker, which was built near Berlin's Reich Chancellery, on April 30, 1945.

Zelensky says there is 'high risk' talks with Russia will stop

 

The mass murderer took his own life alongside his wife Eva Braun, who he had married the day before.

By then, Germany was on the brink of total defeat against Allied and Russian forces.

The Nazi dictator had launched a doomed invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 which saw Joseph Stalin's forces fight back and ultimately triumph against German troops.

Earlier this month human rights officials claimed that, just like in Nazi Germany, the Kremlin has resorted to recruiting children to boost its troop numbers in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow was said to be recruiting from youth clubs and conscripting 16-year-olds to replace the estimated 30,000 soldiers either killed, wounded or captured so far in the war.

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So-called 'patriotic clubs' sprang up in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine following its invasion in 2014 as part of a campaign to promote the country's culture in Luhansk and Donetsk.

The Ukrainian parliament commissioner on human rights Lyudmyla Denisova said: 'The occupation authorities [of Luhansk and Donetsk] are conducting the mobilisation of children who participated in the so-called patriotic clubs, to the levels of illegal weapons formations.

'They have been doing military training and there have been deaths among these teenagers [in Ukraine].

'Now they are promoting the entry into the army of civilians, including children in the temporarily occupied territories.

'In doing so, the Russian Federation has violated the laws and customs of war provided by the 1949 Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians… and the rights of children.

'The recruitment of children is a violation of international law.'