A FURIOUS Vladimir Putin has sent “revenge” squads into occupied Crimea to hunt down any locals who helped Kyiv blitz his warship.
It comes amid revelations that the humiliated Russian tyrant vowed to drag his grinding war of attrition in Ukraine out for at least five more years.
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As a Christmas gift for Putin, Ukraine launched a British Storm Shadow missile strike that sunk a key Russian landing ship in annexed Crimea.
The explosions lit up the sky above Moscow’s naval stronghold on Boxing Day, possibly killing dozens of servicemen.
A Ukrainian supersonic Su-24 jet is said to have launched the cruise missile which ripped apart the Novocherkassk said to be loaded with Iranian suicide drones.
At least 52 men among the 77 onboard have been reported missing or injured in the attack’s aftermath.
But as many as 100 people could have been killed in the strike, military analyst Yan Matveev told The Times.
Now, Putin – said to be “completely furious” – has reportedly ordered death squads to hunt down anyone working for the resistance inside the occupied peninsula.
Ukrainian partisan group Atesh said on Telegram: “The flywheel of repression is spinning.
“Local residents have been raided throughout the city, their smartphones are being taken away and their houses are being searched.”
The ragtag resistance group, who state their goal is to “destroy the Russian army from the inside”, argued: “It is reported that Putin is completely furious over the destruction of the Novocherkassk large landing ship.”
The group also stated that Putin intends to remove top commanders based in Crimea and send them into Russia’s meat-grinder assaults at the front.
The huge coup for Kyiv had come amid surfacing reports that Putin told China’s president Xi Jinping back in March that Russia “will fight for at least five years” in Ukraine.
In an attempt to downplay his lack of visible battlefield gains, he sought to assure Xi that Russia would emerge victorious in the end, Nikkei Asia reports, citing sources.
He allegedly implied that a protracted war would favour China’s key ally at their Moscow meeting.
Last week, Putin told his generals that his war goals have not changed and stated: “We won’t give up what’s ours.”
However, he swiftly added: “If they want to negotiate, let them negotiate.”
Today, Putin’s top ally Dmitry Medvedev blasted Kyiv for allegedly rejecting negotiations for a possible ceasefire.
He stated that talks were “possible” and claimed that “Russia has never rejected them, unlike the crazy authorities of Ukraine.”
The Kremlin has reportedly been signalling since September that they are open for a ceasefire on the condition that Russia keeps Ukraine’s occupied territories, insider sources say.
The New York Times reported that former senior Russian officials said the Kremlin had been using back-channel diplomacy to signal they were open for negotiations.
However, some analysts have suggested its a ploy by Putin to suggest he is open to securing peace ahead of the 2024 presidential elections in March.
Such a move would likely favour him in the polls – although he is all but certain to win the sham elections.
As Kyiv blasted the warship out of the water on Boxing Day, Russia fired missiles at Kherson’s railway station as 140 people tried to flee the station.
At least one person was killed and several wounded in the attack that destroyed the train they were attempting to board, according to witnesses.
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Iona Cleave
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