Friday's headlines: Putin's failing health and Scots islanders stranded

Vladimir Putin may already be dead as rumours spiral about the Russian leader's death, MI6 sources say.

Ukraine. The video, believed to be captured by a Ukrainian soldier, appears to show the Russian bomb light up the night sky with a shower of thermite - a horrific concoction of aluminum powder and iron oxide that burns at a high temperature, which The Sun claims can "burn flesh down to the bone".It is also reported the thermite bomb was fired by Russian grad launchers using 9M22S incendiary rockets.If verified, this footage is evidence that Russian forces are using chemical weapons in Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.The terrifying footage was posted on Twitter by the user @Harri_Est, the founder of Ukraine Aid Operation, who tweeted that the footage was sent to him by a friend in the National Guard unit in Donbas.

Russia's despotic president Vladimir Putin are ramping up, as a Russian intelligence source has claimed that he has just three years to live.The FSB office has claimed that Putin has a “severe form of rapidly progressing cancer”.The Mirror reports how the unnamed spy also told that Putin is beginning to go blind.He said: “He has no more than two to three years to stay alive.“We are told he is suffering from headaches and when he appears on TV he needs pieces of paper with everything written in huge letters to read what he’s going to say.“They are so big each page can only hold a couple of sentences. His eyesight is seriously worsening.“And his limbs are now also shaking uncontrollably.” And the comments were backed up by the Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Major-General Kyrylo Budanov.

Vladimir Putin has worked hard to maintain a masculine, hardman appearance – but pictures have exposed his steady decline from athletic KGB agent to a feeble nutter who struggles to hold his arm out.After the dictator seized the job of Russian President in 2000, he has carefully controlled his public image with a series of shots showing him in a range of physical activities, from winning judo tournaments to riding horses topless.But Putin’s macho looks have slowly evaporated from him over the past three years and his slim face has now been replaced by a bloated look.The physical power associated with the Russian leader has also vanished recently, with clips showing him resting his arms on a table and shaking as he speaks. It has led to suggestions that Putin himself is aware of his deteriorating health and that this is one of the reasons for his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin, 69, has come under scrutiny after two politicians in Russia called on the president to halt their offensive in Ukraine in a rare show of public dissent. Russia's three-month military campaign in Ukraine shows no signs of abating, despite thousands of people being killed and wounded and millions more displaced because of the invasion.Public loyalty of the country's political parties and government officials is commonplace but, during a meeting of the legislative assembly of the Primorsky Krai region yesterday (May 29), a lawmaker and a member of the Communist faction broke ranks."If our country does not halt the military operation then there will be even more orphans in our country," Leonid Vasyukevich, 69, read from the statement, according to a video of the meeting."During a military operation, people became disabled.

Russian despot Vladimir Putin may already be dead, British intelligence chiefs believe.Senior MI6 bosses say the Russian president has been seriously ill and that if he had died, his cronies would hush it up to keep power for as long as possible.A source told the Daily Star Sunday that Putin’s recent media appearances had very probably been pre-recorded.A body double may also have been used at public events, like the Moscow Victory Day Parade earlier this month.One intelligence source said: “Putin is very ill and when he dies his death will be kept secret for weeks, if not months.“There is also the possibility that he is already dead. It’s impossible to know.

Putin has ordered troops to fire a terrifying and “unstoppable” new hypersonic missile at targets in the White Sea, Moscow claims.The destructive Zircon weapon has been developed over a period of at least four years and is capable of hitting locations a whopping 620 miles away at a speed of 7,000mph.Russia ’s Ministry of Defence told Kremlin-backed news organisation TASS: "Today, the lead frigate of Project 22350 Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile at a sea target position in the White Sea from the Barents Sea.” They boasted their missile was able to go "so high that it prevents the opponent's air defence system from detecting its impact in time". It comes as the evil Russian President intensifies his invasion of Ukraine with a horrific “scorched earth” policy that aims to eliminate opposition in the eastern European country.

Russia's despotic President Vladimir Putin has ramped up his invasion of Ukraine, and is now employing a “scorched-earth policy”, according to a top Ukrainian commander. Petro Kuzyk has been leading the National Guard Rapid Reponse brigade in the fight to defence the embattled city of Severodonetsk.The area has become Putin's main target of violence in recent weeks, as he attempts to save face in the invasion which has gone on around three months longer than he had originally planned.Commander Kuzyk told local media that around 500 Russian shells were hitting the city every hour.He said, in a video interview showing him sitting on the floor, smoking a cigarette while surrounded by supplies: “We have intelligence that huge columns of tanks are moving in the direction of Severodonetsk.“This tactic has been tested, it does them little good, but thanks to massive shelling, they can move forward — because they are destroying positions, trenches and buildings step by step.“They did not capture Rubizhne — they wiped it off the face of the earth.“We are catastrophically short of artillery-systems, accurate, counter-battery systems that destroy enemy artillery from a long distance.“Here, they still have an advantage in artillery.”The Eastern city has become the new focus of Putin's troops.The area is now being dubbed the “new Mariupol”, after Putin's forces levelled that city early on into the invasion.Commander Kuzyk added: “We do not have enough multiple launch rocket systems that hit the target.“We need to more or less close the sky — it’s either serious air defence systems, or fighter aircraft.

Vladimir Putin’s nuclear “doomsday arsenal” could obliterate life on Earth – but the Russian President may not be able to deploy the missiles alone, an expert has claimed. With the war in Ukraine having dragged on for over three months, the threat of Putin deploying his nuclear missiles has so far prevented NATO forces from intervening directly in the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s removal from being a dictator is reportedly being discussed by the Russian elite, according to an incriminating new report.

Vladimir Putin's bluff after suggesting over half of their nuclear missiles "do not work". The news comes after a fresh threat to the West this week, with the head of Russia's space agency claimed the country has 50 new nuclear missiles.Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos and a close allay of the Russian president, said an array of Sarmat-2 missiles – measuring 14 storeys tall and weighing 208 tons – will be deployed by the autumn to remind the world of Russia's capabilities.But in March, three US officials with intelligence on Russian warheads claimed that around 60 percent of Moscow's missiles are in fact inoperative.Fears of a nuclear-armed conflict have been one of the main themes of the debate about how to deal with Russia after the Kremlin ordered its invasion of Ukraine back in early February.

Vladimir Putin’s closest allies has issued a bizarre vision of a "new world order" to the UN. Since Russian President Putin invaded Ukraine in February he’s been blacklisted by almost every major country, except a handful, such as Belarus.Now the country's president Alexander Lukashenko has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres to explain Putin’s sordid reasoning for violating Ukraine’s sovereignty.According to Belarussian TV, the letter, dated May 18, urged the UN to welcome in a "new world order" where all sovereign states have "security guarantees" and warned that the Ukraine conflict would have "devastating consequences" if not.Lukashenko repeated Putin’s threat that, unless “security guarantees” were forthcoming, the Ukraine war would become “protracted with devastating consequences”.He reportedly said: “Belarus calls on the countries of the world to unite and prevent the regional conflict in Europe from escalating into a full-scale world war.”He went on to stress that the US and NATO were violating Putin’s grand ‘new world order’ by sending weapons to Ukraine.He continued: “Together and each in our role, we can do a lot today: refrain from the supply of weapons.”“Today, the world, unfortunately, forgets that Belarusians have never been a threat to any of their neighbours.“We are not aggressors, as some states try to present us.

Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine by unanimously chanting ‘f*** the war’. Footage has emerged of the of the defiant scene which is thought to have taken place at a show for Russian band Kis-Kis on Friday night.Shortly after Russian troops moved in on Ukraine, Putin introduced new legislation targeting free speech.At least 2,000 people have been fined and 133 others are facing prison time for their supposed non-compliance.However, in spite of the legislation, this hasn't stopped the defiance as the events in St Petersburg came hot on the heels of Russian singer Yuri Shevchuk, from 1980s band DDT, charged with "discrediting" Putin’s military for sharing his opposition to the war at his show last week.

Russia does not win the war in Ukraine. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine has been consistently backed by state TV stooges, with one raving that nuclear missiles could wipe out in the UK in “202 seconds”.And, as the war draws on into its fourth month, and with little signs of Russian progress, a US senator recently warned that Putin could launch a nuclear attack out of desperation.Now, addressing how long the war might continue for on Russian state TV, Margarita Simonyan issued a stark threat to any doubters about Russia’s ability to take on the West.“They all believe that we will lose and the West will win,” she began, in a clip translated and shared on Twitter by Julia Davis.“They don’t understand that it’s simply impossible, it will never happen.“Either we win, or this will end badly for all of humanity.

Vladimir Putin will soon unleash a bloody barrel bomb campaign in Ukraine after he brought in troops linked to the brutal Syrian army.The under-pressure Russian president has taken on 50 lethal weapons specialists to work alongside his own officials as they prepare to begin a new stage in the conflict, according to European intelligence officers speaking to the Guardian.Barrel bombs, containers packed with explosives and projectiles that are dropped from helicopters, killed more than 11,000 civilians in Syria after the outbreak of civil war in 2012 — including 1,821 children.Human rights groups have since accused airborne forces from Bashar al-Assad's government of using the weapon indiscriminately to unleash fear and terror upon entire populations.Now it is being claimed that the Russian army is planning to bring in men from its Middle Eastern allies to revive the flailing war effort in Ukraine, though some experts believe significant differences between the two conflicts may doom them to failure.Asserting that the western-backed and air-equipped Ukrainian army would be a much more difficult foe than the rebel groups in Syria, one European official told The Guardian: “This is probably why we haven’t seen them cross the border”“We know the capacity is there, but if they use it, they lose; we will know who’s done it, and they will likely be killed anyway.”Intelligence sources claim around 800 and 1,000 Syrian troops have volunteered to fight for the Russian army.Those wishing to travel to Europe to serve are said to have been promised salaries of $1,500 - $4,000 (£1200 - £3200) when they join the frontline, which is around ten times more than they would earn in their own country amid a prolonged economic crisis.Back on

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and Microsoft chief Satya Nadella were skedded to join 2,500 politicians, business and nonprofit leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week as the annual gathering kneecapped by Covid is back in person. It reconvenes, a bit subdued, at a critical moment with the world staggering under food scarcity, raging fuel prices and war.

Vladimir Putin underwent "successful" cancer surgery last week as the Kremlin used "deepfake" technology to pretend that he was still working, it has been claimed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin survived an assassination attempt two months ago, Ukraine intelligence claims. A hit on the tyrant at the start of his invasion on Ukraine fell through and proved to be nothing more than an "unsuccessful attempt" on his life, according to Ukraine's Chief of Defence Intelligence.Kyrylo Budanov has claimed Putin was attacked in the Caucasus in an assassination plot which has remained hidden under wraps since it happened.In an interview which will be broadcast in full tomorrow (Tuesday, May 24), Mr Budanov told Ukrainian Pravda: "Putin was assassinated…"He was even attacked in the line of, as they say, representatives of the Caucasus not so long ago."This is non-public information.

Vladimir Putin is struggling with another wave of massive military losses in Ukraine. It comes as military chiefs in Ukraine say their army killed 'hundreds' of Russian troops as they attempted to advance across the strategically vital Seversky Donets River in the east of the nation.

Vladimir Putin could soon be admitted to a sanatorium, one former MI6 boss claims.

Vladimir Putin could be shipped off to a sanatorium to avoid a coup in the Russian government, the former boss of MI6 has claimed. The brutal Russian leader is rumoured to be suffering with cancer and Parkinson's disease and theories have circulated that he will soon lose his grip on power.