VLADIMIR Putin is making a “second calamitous blunder” almost two years after invading Ukraine, the head of Britain’s armed forces has warned.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin mocked the Kremlin despot as “no grand master of strategy” as Putin’s main gambits had failed or backfired – his army is stretched and his Black Sea Fleet scattered.
But the tyrant's biggest mistake was pushing Russia’s economy towards Soviet-style collapse.
“If his first catastrophic mistake was invading Ukraine, he is now making his he is now making his second calamitous blunder," Admiral Radakin said when delivering the Chief of Defence Staff’s annual lecture in London.
“The Russian economy is being twisted even more out of shape.
“Nearly 40 per cent of all Russian public expenditure is being spent on defence.
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“That is more than the aggregate of health and education.
“And the last time we saw these levels was at the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.”
He added: “This is disastrous for Russia and its people.”
Admiral Radakin admitted that Ukraine’s counter-offensive, however, gained less ground than was hoped and that Russian defences were stronger than expected.
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He said Ukraine was fighting with a “citizen army” of men in their 30s and 40s with families back home.
“Ukraine is cautious with their lives. We would be too.
"And it speaks volumes about the contrasting approaches of Russian and Ukrainian leaders," he said.
The UK armed forces boss also backed President Zelensky’s insistence that the conflict had not reached a stalemate, saying: “Territory is not the only measure of how this war progresses.
“Talk of stalemate or the advantages to Russia of settling for a long war are too superficial.”
He added Russia’s attempt to weaponise energy exports backfired when Europe reduced its dependence on Russian gas.
“Putin sought to withhold global food supplies. But the world responded with the Black Sea Grain Initiative," Admiral Radakin said.
“He sought to coerce the West with reckless nuclear threats.
“But elicited global condemnation, including China, India and Saudi Arabia.
“And now he’s wanted by the International Criminal Court.
“He’s suffered the shock and humiliation of an attempted coup.
“Crimea is no longer safe. The Black Sea Fleet has scattered.
“He has to keep 400 thousand troops in Ukraine to hold on to what he has taken.
“And he cannot order a general mobilisation – at least ahead of next year’s election – for fear of how his own people will respond.”
He said Russia had “few real friends abroad”, with Putin increasingly "resembling a prisoner of his own making”.
It comes after Kyiv suffered a hellish night after Russia launched a massive missile attack overnight that left 53 people injured.
Ukraine's air defences downed ten strikes – believed to be powerful Russian Iskander missiles – but damage was caused by falling rocket debris.
The horror hit damaged a children’s hospital and apartment building and wounded 53 people including six children, one aged only five.
It marked one of the biggest number of injured in the Ukrainian capital in months.
Twenty people were hospitalised as a result of the heavy bombardment of Kyiv, including two children.
The military administration in the Ukrainian capital said the city had faced "the second high-speed missile attack on Kyiv in the last two days.
Meanwhile, footage showed Russia had put its flag over the ruins of Maryinka, a hotly-disputed town in the Donetsk region, as it makes gains on the frontline.
The attacks happened as President Volodymyr Zelensky was outside the country on a visit to Washington, where President Joe Biden warned that Russia was banking on the United States abandoning Ukraine.
Biden warned his foes they were making a “Christmas gift” to Vladimir Putin by refusing to sanction urgent new munitions for Kyiv and said the US would "continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can."
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The Ukrainian leader dismissed suggestions he could concede territory taken by Russia since its February 2022 invasion to move any ceasefire closer.
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