Putin “fears for his life” after humiliating defeat by Ukraine

Vladimir Putin “fears for his life” after Russian troops were forced to withdraw from Kherson, a Kiev official claimed.

The withdrawal was a humiliating blow to Putin’s army, as the strategic city was the first and only regional capital Russia had captured.

The reactions to the defeat in Moscow were shock and despair, including from state television presenters.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, told The Times: “Putin is very scared because in Russia there is no forgiveness for tsars who lose wars.

“He’s fighting for his life now. If he loses the war, that 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.

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

Andrey Norkin, a presenter for Russia’s state broadcaster NTV, refused to talk about the Kherson withdrawal on his show, joking that he would be jailed if he spoke his true views.

Meanwhile, on air, Russian political pundit Sergey Kurginyan admitted that “everything isn’t so great,” adding that “a big conventional war… shouldn’t happen.”

However, Kherson’s liberation has sparked further rocket attacks across Ukraine, killing a newborn overnight at a maternity hospital in Zaporizhia.

Rescuers say the mother and doctor were rescued from the rubble of the two-story building, but the child died.

Sorrow fills the hearts of Ukrainians, said Zaporizhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh.

He wrote on Telegram: “Overnight Russian monsters fired huge rockets at the small maternity ward of Vilnyansk hospital.

“Sorrow fills our hearts – a baby who had just appeared in this world was killed.”

Emergency services shared video of rescuers trying to pull out a man trapped waist-deep in the rubble of what appeared to be a maternity ward.

It is believed that no one else was trapped in the rubble.

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