VLADIMIR Putin's health is "sharply deteriorating" and the tyrant will "no longer attend meetings" as his invasion continues to falter, insiders claim.

Rumours have swirled about the Russian president's form for months and it has even been alleged he has used body doubles at some events.

The apparently ailing despot is claimed to the flailing over his war strategy – torn between using nuclear weapons or accepting defeat.

Amid fresh concerns over Putin's health, his security officials have bluntly told the warmongering president that he has run out of “good” options, insiders claim.

It comes as the death toll among Russia forces spirals – with more than 44,000 Russian troops killed and at least 1,800 tanks destroyed, according to data from Ukraine's military.

The Kremlin had hoped for a swift victory in Ukraine, but almost six months on hero defenders continues to push back.

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In recent days, Crimea – under Russia's control since 2014 – has come under fire and has been subject to kamikaze drone strikes.

In a humiliating blow to Putin, Kyiv – which the tyrant arrogantly thought he could seize in days – has put masses of burnt-out and captured tanks on display in a show of strength.

General SVR Telegram channel, an opposition source claiming to offering "insider" information which the Kremlin is reportedly "seeking to shut down", has now made fresh claims about his health.

It claims there is "despondency among Putin's senior entourage that he had privately raised the “extreme” option with top aides to give up newly invaded territories to Ukraine.

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At the same time, there is a warning from his defence chiefs that a Ukrainian military counter strike is likely to be “effective”.

Such an outcome would threaten his presidency, being seen as a humbling, crushing defeat, it speculated.

But Putin’s leading officials are also said to be braced for a “sharp deterioration” in his medical condition.

The channel – which has long claimed Putin is suffering from cancer and other serious medical problems – said: "With a high degree of probability, we can say that soon the president will not be able to personally hold meetings and participate in large events."

Putin’s absence will be explained as due to a return of the Covid pandemic, it was alleged.

Body doubles “have also recently been used quite often”, it alleged without specifying where or when.

In recent meetings with his security and defence aides, General SVR claimed “various options were discussed, from the possibility of mobilising and using tactical nuclear weapons, to opening a second front in a third country, and, finally, to ‘gestures of good will’ with the return of the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions to Ukraine.”

A second front might involve an invasion of northern Kazakhstan, a region with many ethnic Russians, as a distraction to hide the ignominy of his failings in Ukraine, it is claimed.

He has so far rejected a full mobilisation, another option, amid fears it would trigger mass mutiny, it is reported.

But a "extreme’" course was also discussed involving the return of land in the Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics” won during the almost six-month war, in additon to land in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, the channel wildly alleged.

The discussion of the "extreme" options in the presence and at the initiative of the President led many in his war team to “despondency”, it is claimed.

The channel said: "Without exception, all of Putin's interlocutors realised that the president simply does not have ‘good’ options for solving urgent and upcoming problems at the front.”

Such a move would amount to the "beginning of the end" for his rule and the regime he heads, it said.

The report also argued that military chiefs blame Putin for tactics which have led them to such heavy loses.

It said: “Almost the entire military leadership of Russia lays the blame for both the unsuccessful start and, in general, the course of the military operation, and the huge losses of manpower and weapons, precisely on President Vladimir Putin.

Yet the military leadership “has no doubt that they will be made guilty for all the failures and problems at the front”, it claimed.

It is reported close Putin crony, hardliner Nikolai Patrushev, his leading security advisor and a key proponent of the war, urged Putin “to find a way out of the current situation”.

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Failure to do so would cause deeper problems if there was a successful counteroffensive by Ukraine, it is said.

The channel has claimed that Putin is suffering from serious illnesses including cancer, Parkinson’s disease and a schizoaffective disorder.

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