Putin health fears grow as Russian dictator misses annual ice hockey match

Vladimir Putin's troops may be using deadly chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, according to government officials. Vice President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov shared a harrowing video on Twitter claiming that Russian soldiers are using phosphorus bombs to fight against the "defenders of Mariupol." The clip, which runs for just under one minute, shows a bleak view of the once-thriving city from the air as explosions continue across the area, sending huge flames into the air.Looking from another angle, explosives are seen splitting in the sky, sending streaks of smoke raining down over the city.

Vladimir Putin has been hit with another blow in his bloody invasion of Ukraine - as UK intelligence revealed he is likely to have lost around a third of his troops sent to war in February.

Ukrainian troops have mocked bonkers Russian President Vladimir Putin by playing cards that have his face on.The brave soldiers have printed pictures of him alongside other “war criminals” onto the deck, in a similar move to US fighters against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.There are two editions of the cards, including one featuring Putin and the Russian government and another with photos of their top military officers.Ukrainian armed forces chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi worked alongside volunteers from the international intelligence community InformNapalm to produce the cards.He declared: “By the joint efforts of the military and volunteers, by the efforts of all people of goodwill…racism will inevitably be beaten.”Ukrainian soldiers who use the cards to play games as they relax will be able to identify people of interest – such as a Russian soldier accused of killing an innocent 62-year-old bloke, who was the first soldier to go to court for war crimes this week.Tank commander Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is accused of using an assault rifle to shoot the unarmed civilian as he rode his bicycle along the street.Stay in the loop with all the latest Daily Star news by signing up to one of our free newsletters here.Tragically, it isn’t the only alleged war crime – a Ukrainian government statement believes Russian military personnel have carried out over 10,000 possible war crimes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is severely ill and suffering from "Parkinson's disease and schizoaffective disorder", according to inside sources. This comes after one of Russia's top oligarchs claimed he was “very ill with blood cancer”, with rumours circulating that he is due to undergo surgery.

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time BAFTA nominee Maxine Peake (The Village) is set to star as renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in the timely Cannes market package Mother Russia.

Vladimir Putin is 'firing and arresting' his top brass over the botched invasion of Ukraine, according to reports.

Russia-Ukraine war showing the moment one of Vladimir Putin's tanks is blown to pieces by Ukrainian forces.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is suffering severe health problem as rumours over a potential successor now have eyes on a young mystery man he was close with at the Victory Day parade.He has appeared unsteady and weak in recent pubic appearances, and sparked further speculation when he missed an ice hockey match that has been a regular date in his diary for a decade.But If Putin were to step down – or be ousted – the big question is who would replace him?In the short term Mikhail Mishustin, the Prime Minister, would automatically assume power if the leader died or became incapacitated.But Kremlin watchers are tipping Dmitry Kovalev as a possible future leader. Kovalev, a member of the Presidential Administration, appears to be one of the few people that Putin trusts.Russian news source Baza (Base) posted on Telegram that Kovalev, 36, seemed to be very friendly with Putin at Monday’s Victory Parade in Moscow."Baza found out the identity of a young man who talked about something with Vladimir Putin after the end of the Victory Parade,” the post read.“During the live broadcast, the camera caught their conversation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly outraged about his secret gymnast lover falling pregnant again.

Vladimir Putin is under threat from “hardmen” within the Kremlin after his disastrous Ukraine campaign, and the Russian leader could be planning to invade other countries just to “distract” his generals, a top military expert has said. Putin has weakened his own position within Russia, says former NATO boss Sir James Everard, and he has weakened Russia’s position in the world.

Russian multi-millionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky posted shocking photos earlier this week that showed a young girl being trained to shoot “fascists” with a rifle.The pictures, apparently taken in the south Russian city of Kislovodsk, were originally sourced from a Telegram account belonging to the Mayor of Kislovodsk Yevgeny Moiseev.The girl was being encouraged to shoot at a crude effigy wearing jeans, combat jacket and a mocked-up Nazi armband.Moiseev wrote: “In Kislovodsk, they carried out an operation to shoot the last fascist - on the gates of one of the private households they hung an effigy of the fascist invader and occupier, who was shot with an air rifle." Long before he launched his invasion of Ukraine, Russia ’s leader Vladimir Putin had described Ukrainians as “fascists”. He has repeatedly claimed that “anti-Semitic forces” run Ukraine and that “fascists” orchestrated street protests in 2013 and 2014 that opposed closer economic ties with Russia..

Vladimir Putin's forces have been accused of keeping Ukrainians in refrigerators before carting them off to Russia, according to a Ukraine human rights organisation. Grim reports from officials in Ukraine say that troops abducted, threatened and deported civilians in the towns of Gostomel, Irpen and Bucha during their failed assault on Kyiv this year.The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs now believes that dozens of deported civilians are being held in Russian jails, and are likely facing torture.Numerous reports of kidnappings also remain unresolved, with some families still trying to find missing members nearly a month after Russians retreated from the area.Some have been taken to Russia and Belarus under the guise of 'evacuation', where they are in fact placed in camps and not allowed to leave.One witness to the alleged atrocities described being threatened with death and separated from his loved ones as he was forced into a terrifying interrogation.The man, named Oleg, was placed under blindfold with close family near an airfield in Ukraine and had a gun held to his temple when his own son ran out to tell soldiers that he should not be killed.His entire family was then transported in the armoured personnel carrier, while blindfolded, before being put into a disused refrigeration unit.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.Oleg told human rights organisation the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIPL): "We were placed in non-functioning refrigerators in a dilapidated dining room.

Vladimir Putin. Rumours of an affair between her and the Russian president began circulating in 2008 after she was dubbed “Russia’s most eligible woman”.Russian newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent ran a story claiming Putin had divorced his wife, Lyudmila Putina, and was going to marry Kabaeva.However, the Kremlin soon denied this and the newspaper was completely shutdown soon after.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentVersatile British actor Ben Whishaw, best known globally for playing Q in five James Bond films, has been cast in what’s bound to be the one of the most complex roles of his career.The actor will play the titular character in “Limonov, The Ballad of Eddie,” a new English-language film by revered Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov (“Petrov’s Flu,” “Leto”), about radical Russian poet and political dissident Eduard Limonov.The film, which will be presented as a promo reel to buyers in Cannes on May 17, is inspired by the best-selling novel “Limonov” by French writer and director Emmanuelle Carrère, which was translated in 35 countries.“Limonov” delves into the story of Eduard Limonov, who lived many lives. He was an underground writer in the Soviet Union who escaped to the U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentIconoclastic Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov (“Leto,” “Petrov’s Flu”) will be unveiling footage in Cannes from his new work-in-progress film “Limonov, the Ballad of Eddie,” starring Ben Whishaw as radical Russian poet and dissident Eduard Limonov and Viktoria Miroshnichenko (“Beanpole”) as his wife Elena.Serebrennikov, who will coming to Cannes with his latest completed work “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” premiering in competition, was shooting “Limonov” in Russia when the war broke out. The director has since been able to leave the country and will complete the rest of the shoot in Europe.A “Limonov” promo reel will be unspooled for buyers in Cannes on May 17.

Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina has escaped from Russia as president Vladimir Putin continues to crack down on dissidents in the country.Alyokhina, along with her bandmates, has been arrested and imprisoned multiple times over the past decade and more for publicly protesting Putin’s rule, most recently last year when she was detained for 48 hours after attending protests encouraging others to protest on social media.Amid the continued Russian invasion of Ukraine, a new story in The New York Times reveals that Alyokhina was under house arrest and, when authorities decided to turn that into a 21-day jail sentence last month, she decided to flee Russia.The story outlines Alyokhina’s escape, which included posing as a food courier and being placed on Russia’s wanted list after being refused entry into Belarus on account of her Russian passport having been confiscated by authorities.The report then reveals that Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson was able to assist Alyokhina in getting her a travel document from a European country that allowed her to travel freely from Russia to the EU. It adds that she has now travelled to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.“I still don’t understand completely what I’ve done,” she said in the piece.

Vladimir Putin is "more dangerous" than both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, the Polish Prime Minister has claimed. Mateusz Morawiecki said that the Russian President is more of a threat as he has advanced weapons at his disposal, such as a nuclear arsenal.He also noted that, compared to the 20th century dictators, Putin can channel "the new media at his fingertips to spread his propaganda" more effectively.

Vladimir Putin's health may be failing during his Victory Day speech on Monday (May 9), a body language expert has claimed. The Russian President was spotted with a blanket over his legs, something that none of the other Kremlin dignitaries deemed necessary for themselves in the 9C Moscow weather.

Ukrainian military has said that Russian forces fired seven missiles at Odesa, hitting a shopping centre and a warehouse in an attack that killed one person and injured five. The city’s Mayor Gennady Trukhanov said that the warehouse "had nothing in common with military infrastructure or military objects".The strikes come a day after a Victory Day parade in Moscow, where Vladimir Putin was surprisingly calm in his speech - which many expected to be thunderous.

James Bond villain but she was actually a real life spy dispatched by Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin to infiltrate America - before becoming a sultry Maxim magazine covergirl.The super-glamourous, flame-haired femme fatale from Russia posed as an American in the US to feed information back to her homeland.And she showed just how she was able to charm her way to hearts of her targets when dressed in Agent Provocateur lingerie on the front cover of a leading men's magazine and named one of Russia's 100 most sexiest women.These days, Anna is a TV host and celebrity with an army of followers on social media, but she first came to attention when her cover was blown as a Kremlin spy in America.It certainly sounds like the stuff of TV fiction, but Chapman, from Volgograd, was part of a secretive program tasked with conducting operations inside the United States.She was born Anna Kushchenko and gained an economics degree from Moscow University before she met her future husband Alex Chapman in London in 2001.After the couple married Chapman gained a British passport and worked at a bank before moving to New York, but the marriage was not to last and in 2006 the pair divorced.In 2018 it was reported that Alex had died two years previously with his family not wishing to share the details of his death but insisting it was nothing suspicious.Chapman’s secretive work in the US was dubbed The Illegals Program by the Department of Justice and its discovery was one of the biggest spy rings found on American soil.It was alleged that while she was active she attempted to seduce a cabinet member of the Obama administration and came very close to fulfilling her task.Had it been successful, Chapman could have gained access to highly sensitive

Russian President Vladimir Putin would need to send 600,000 more troops to Ukraine to secure victory, NATO's former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in Europe has claimed. Sir James Everard also warned that the tyrant may turn to nuclear weapons to level the playing field.