‘Toxic’ Putin running out of time as Kremlin race to find successor ‘under way’

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Russia's despotic President Vladimir Putin is running out of time, as his allies are already trying to figure out who will take over from him.

When Putin first ordered an invasion into Ukraine, he claimed it would be won within 72 hours.

But more than one year on, the walls are seemingly closing in on war mad Vlad as the Russian public grow tired of the battle and losses.

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So far, Putin has lost around 700k soldiers, with more than 70% of that being men injured so badly in battle that they can no longer return to the front line.

This has seen the truth of the invasion return with the men to Russia, and now official intelligence from Ukraine claims that Putin's countrymen are looking to replace him – less than 48 hours after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him.

According to Andriy Yusov, from Ukraine's military intelligence directorate: “The circle around Putin is narrowing.

“(He is becoming) more and more toxic. Within the Kremlin, there is more and more dissatisfaction with what is happening.

“There is an increasingly gloomy understanding of the prospects, specifically the geopolitical catastrophe of the Putin regime.

“Thus, the search for Putin's successor is already under way.”

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He made the comments on a Ukrainian news channel yesterday (March 18), which were posted to Twitter and translated by Anton Geraschenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

The news comes as a former US Army General claimed that Putin's army was facing “total collapse” by the end of the year.

Ben Hodges, who served as commanding general in the United States Army in Europe, predicted Russian forces would end up succumbing to the battle of attrition in Ukraine.

Hodges tweeted: "Russia is being attrited at such a rate that they may collapse before the end of this year, assuming the West delivers in time what we've promised. War is a test of will and a test of logistics."

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