VLADIMIR Putin is plotting a final killer offensive along three fronts to win the war, a new report claims.
It comes as the Russian army nears one million casualties in its bungled three-year-old invasion and peace talks stall.
The tyrant is still looking for a knockout blow despite initially saying he would win the war in a matter of days.
Putin is hoping to change that this summer, with a widely expected fresh offensive to begin.
Some 125,000 Russian soldiers are reportedly massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence.
Over the past fortnight border villages have fallen to Russia as it is believed to be preparing the ground for the invasion.
But some senior commanders in Ukraine believe that could be a feint and Russia is actually preparing to attack further south to push further into the Donbas, Ukraine Pravda reports.
Russia is likely to attack through three areas near each other in the Donbas – Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk.
Vlad already controls more than 95 per cent of Luhansk, but capturing Donetsk would cement his control over the Donbas region and achieve a war aim, albeit a scaled-down one.
The Donbas is an important industrial and mining area – and some 200,000 to 300,000 people still live in four cities controlled by Ukraine.
Moscow’s military planners will be weighing up whether they want to fight through the cities like they did in Bakhmut or encircle them by going around through farmland.
Kramatorsk is the closest city to the front line and is under constant attack by Russia.
A recent drone strike managed to get inside an armoured vehicle carrying Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia has an opportunity to conduct a pincer movement around Kostiantynivka with its soldiers controlling land to the east and west of the city.
Instead of attacking the city directly, the could bypass it and attack Druzhkivka behind it – thereby cutting Kostiantynivka and any Ukrainian soldiers still there off.
In nearby Pokrovsk, Russia already has a salient, a bulge, out from the front line after a previous advance.
Ukraine reports also daily contact with Russian troops in the area.
The Pokrovsk front line is also very near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – a region of Ukraine the Kremlin hasn’t yet officially claimed.
A successful breakthrough there might mean Putin can actually expand his war goals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is prepared for a summer offensive and has publicly said Russia is set to escalate the war.
His officials believe peace talks are a ruse – with Putin only wanting to talk to demand the terms of surrender.
The Ukrainians will not give in and any advance by Russia is going to come at a high cost.
Vlad’s army has been making incremental gains along the front line, with troops overwhelming Ukraine in meat grinder assaults.
But for that Russia has suffered 434,000 dead and wounded in the last year, 270 for every square mile they have seized.
Ukraine has used drones and Western-supplied arms to grind the Russians down into a WW1-style trench war.
But observers worry a massive new Russian offensive could break the deadlock.
Moscow has spent the winter recruiting more troops, improving tactics, and enhancing their drones.
An offensive likely won’t use tanks, Polish military analyst Konrad Muzyka told the Telegraph.
He said, instead, Russian troops were advancing using lighter motors.
Muzyka said: “Any large-scale deployment of armour is going to be destroyed relatively quickly.
“We have seen the Russians shift to focused, small-unit attacks, often of just three to five men. Company-size assaults of 50 to 100 men hardly ever happen anymore.”
Donald Trump has said he expects Putin’s retaliation following the stunning Opertion Spiderweb “is not going to be pretty”.
The US President spoke to Vlad on Wednesday – with the Russian saying, according to Trump, he would “have to respond”.
The call followed Operation Spiderweb — a daring Ukrainian drone blitz that wrecked 41 Russian planes across four strategic airfields, in a coordinated assault likened to WWII’s most audacious missions.
Inside Operation Spiderweb
By James Halpin, foreign news reporter
Ukraine’s shock sleeper drone blitz on Russia’s bomber fleet has delivered a hammer blow to Vladimir Putin’s nuclear arsenal.
The SAS-style strike against four airfields deep inside Russia is reminiscent of the most daring raids of the WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis.
Volodymyr Zelensky oversaw Operation Spiderweb – much like Winston Churchill did as Britain struck deep behind enemy lines.
The Ukrainian said: “It’s genuinely satisfying when something I authorized a year and six months ago comes to fruition and deprives Russians of over forty units of strategic aviation.
“We will continue this work.”
Putin’s doomsday bomber fleet is now crippled with 41, or a third, of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks on tarmac.
Ukraine said the sneak attack was worth $7bn (£5.2bn) in damage to Russia – caused by only 117 cheaply made drones.
Like Israel’s mass pager sabotage against Hezbollah, Kyiv has rewritten the rule book in how to strike the heart of their enemy.
Ukraine’s spies spent 18 months putting the plan into action and struck on the eve of fresh peace talks in Istanbul.
