Western policymakers worry that Vladimir Putin is preparing a massive uptick in the sputtering Russian invasion, perhaps including a fatal nuclear attack or an assault on European interests.
According to British and American spies, there is “reliable evidence” suggesting the Russian president is planning an offensive that would help him win the war after realizing it was “a huge mistake.”
Due to concerns that dual nationals may be enlisted in Russia’s war operations, the US Embassy in Moscow is advising people to leave the country, according to The Mirror.
According to embassy representatives, Russia may “refuse to accept US persons’ dual citizenship,” “block their departure from Russia,” and “deny them access to consular assistance.”
The embassy has issued a warning that leaving Russia has become more difficult as a result of overbooked flights and border closures by Putin’s forces.
According to reports, Putin is preparing to seize four areas that are reported to have massively chosen to join Russia in phony referendums when voters were forcibly marched to the polls.
Over the course of five days, hastily planned elections were held in the four regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which together make up around 15% of Ukrainian territory.
However, there are worries that Putin is preparing a nuclear assault west of the areas, which would result in a radioactive dead zone and stop Ukraine’s up to this point effective counteroffensives.
An further worry is that Russia is getting ready to attack western objectives like marine communications cables.
UK officials think Putin and the Russian people now see that the conflict was a “colossal blunder.”
Additionally, they worry that the partial mobilization of 300,000 conscripts may be a ruse to divert attention away from Ukraine and toward Kyiv when the West was trying to exert pressure on him.
As energy costs increase, there are worries that Kremlin frogmen are behind the “deliberate” damage of the Nord Stream gas supply pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
According to a security insider, the releases might serve as a warning of future attacks on communications cables.
A tactical nuclear attack west of the four locations Putin claims is feasible since he is almost out of alternatives, they said.
It’s likely that Putin thinks this will be sufficient to signal his intentions to the west, stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and declare victory in the east.
An assault on the communication cables between the UK and America, many of which are European lines to the States, is a different potential.
The world’s financial markets might suffer “extremely serious damage” if internet connection cables are damaged.
Following Putin’s announcement last week that he would organize 300,000 men of fighting age to battle Ukraine, mayhem erupted in recruiting centers, airports, and at the borders.
The Kremlin, however, has sent soldiers close to the Georgian border this week in an effort to quell rumors that martial rule would be imposed and that people will be forbidden from leaving in order to escape being drafted into the army.
There are at least six troops seated on top of an armored vehicle as it passes a line of parked automobiles in the direction of the crossing in video geolocated to the little village of Chmi on the major route from Russia into Georgia’s South Ossetia province.
The FSB said that troops were ordered to prevent people from assaulting the crossing after miles-long lines of men attempting to avoid the conscription developed up. Sources said that troops came to set up a roadblock.
The Kremlin has dismissed the idea as “ridiculous” and denied any participation in the blasts. However, Russia is capable of carrying out such a strike.
Putin has easy access to the Baltic through Kaliningrad and St. Petersberg, where its recently developed fleet of underwater drones is also based. He also commands the largest fleet of spy submarines in the world, including one named the Belgorod that was built specifically to attack undersea cables.
‘At first impression, this act equals cutting one’s nose off to spite the face,’ Dr. Stepan Stepanenko, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said MailOnline, “[but] to understand why Russia would do this, we have to look at it in the context of the bogus referenda going place in Ukraine.
Putin’s choices are quickly becoming limited; he must bring the war to a close with a demonstrable territorial gain before the Russian people realize what the rest of the world already realizes: He lost the war.
He is giving the West an ultimatum: free these territories or you’ll be fighting Russia directly by holding these phony referenda and changing the border to declare these regions Russian territory.
If Nord Stream was actually a goal of Moscow in this situation, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that Putin is gearing up for a world war in which selling gas to Europe would be directly assisting his adversary.