Putin fears he will be KILLED and is 'fighting for his life' in Ukraine because 'there is no forgiveness for tsars who lose wars in Russia

Putin fears he will be KILLED and is 'fighting for his life' in Ukraine because 'there is no forgiveness for tsars who lose wars in Russia', senior Ukrainian figure claims 

Vladimir Putin is 'fighting for his life' and fears he could be killed if Russia suffers further heavy setbacks after the liberation of Kherson, a senior Ukrainian intelligence figure has claimed.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said the shock capture of the Russian-held territory has dramatically raised fears in the Kremlin that Ukraine will win the war.

He said, according to The Times: '[Putin] is very afraid because there is no forgiveness in Russia for tsars who lose wars. 

'He is fighting for his life now. If he loses the war, at least in the minds of the Russians, it means the end. The end of him as a political figure. And possibly in the physical sense.'

Vladimir Putin meets with Dmitry Mazepin today with the Russian leader allegedly 'fearing for his life'A municipality worker rips a pro-Russian billboard off after the Kremlin's retreat from Kherson

Kherson's huge importance to the Kremlin - both because of its link to Russian-annexed Crimea and Ukraine's Odessa port to the west - made it an embarrassing loss to Putin when he ordered his troops to retreat last week.

It is Ukraine's biggest capture of the war and has triggered renewed Russian strikes and plans for a new offensive from Belarus, 

He added: 'This has forced even people who are very loyal to Putin to doubt that they can win this war.'

Arestovich says Russian troops will mount an offensive from Belarus to the Donbas and also try to claim the Rivne nuclear plant.

Russian strikes have already hit the region and one of the plant's four units was disconnected last week. 

Arestovich believes the strikes which have halved Ukraine's power capacity are a form of 'blackmail' to force Ukraine and its allies into talks with the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian army fires a captured Russian tank T-80 at the Russian position in Donetsk region

Putin would demand the occupied regions of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk which he would hail as a victory to Russians, the advisor says.

But his citizens may not be so impressed with the territory gains, with Russians already expressing their displeasure at the costly war to the despot.

Furious wives and mothers of conscripted men have taunted the leader, saying 'Are you a man?' as he refused to meet them. 

The women even claimed the warmonger has set his plain-clothed surveillance spies on them to monitor their campaign to bring their relatives out of the war zone.

The Russian leader is set to meet mothers of mobilised troops soon but protesting relatives say these will be handpicked by the Kremlin in a choreographed session without difficult questions about the fate of their 'cannon fodder' men.

In a defiant video, mother Olga Tsukanova, 46, from Samara, whose son, 20, is lost after being mobilised, demanded: 'Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], are you a man or what?'

Ukrainian firefighters work at a damaged hospital maternity ward in Vilniansk, Zaporizhzhia region, today

In a sign of rising opposition to his war and rumoured new round of mobilisation, the brave campaigner, head of the Council of Mothers and Wives, asked: 'Do you have enough courage to look into our eyes — openly, in a meeting with women who weren't hand-picked for you…?

'Women who aren't in your pocket, but real mothers who have travelled here from different cities at their own expense, to meet with you?

'We are here, in Moscow, and we are ready to meet with you. We expect an answer from you.

'Are you going to keep hiding from us?'

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov has already said 70-year-old Putin will not meet these women but those who believe in his war.

The council has accused Putin's commanders of issuing 'criminal orders' putting the lives of their relatives at risk.