Western leaders are bracing for a massive Kremlin escalation in its war against Ukraine as American citizens are recalled urgently from Russia.
They fear Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for a strike inside Ukraine or an attack against western interests such as maritime communications cables and cyber war.
Spies in the UK and America believe there is very “credible intelligence” that Putin is preparing to escalate to try to turn the war in Russia’s favour.
The US embassy in Moscow has warned all citizens to leave Russia immediately by any means necessary and said dual nationality will not be respected by Putin’s officials.
There are fears dual nationals caught in Russia could be drafted into the war in Ukraine.
Officials: “Russia may refuse to acknowledge US nationals’ dual citizenship, deny access to consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia and conscript dual nationals for military service.”
Putin intends to land-grab all four contested regions following his sham polls in eastern Ukraine but is running out of military options in his failing war.
One fear is a tactical nuclear strike west of the four regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia creating a radiation dead zone to stop Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
Beleaguered Putin has run out of the road and is now facing up to his disastrous war and the Russian population now realizes their country has been massively outcast.
But it is possible Putin has used his controversial troop mobilization of 300,000 ill-trained reservists as a distraction to con the west into concentrating on Ukraine.
And the massive breaches in Nord 1 and Nord 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea may have been a bigger indicator of his next move to try and leverage against western support for Kyiv.
Sources say the two massive leaks near the Danish island of Bornholm were possibly the result of Russian espionage committed by Moscow’s secretive submarine fleet.
Not only will the leaks cause a further hike in fuel prices throughout Europe but they could also serve as a warning of more underwater attacks against crucial Western communications cables.
One security source told the Daily Mirror: “Putin has almost run out of options which makes a tactical nuclear strike possible west of the four regions he is claiming.
“It is possible he believes this will be enough as a show of intent to get the west to back off, create a dead zone to halt the Ukrainian counter-offensive and claim victory in the east.
“He could dress this up as the original intention of his so-called “special military operation” even though it may have cost Russian families £60,000 dead soldiers plus all the deaths in Ukraine.
