Vladimir Putin is feeling the stress from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – as he is seen wringing his hands in a meeting with his top officials after Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s troops bit back and made a counter-incursion into the country.
The dictator, 71, was in a security council session on the crisis he faces due to Ukraine’s dramatic invasion of the border areas of Kursk region.
His very public hand-wringing and fidgeting came as he was told earlier this week about how Russia had lost territory to Kyiv troops and – at the time – more than two dozen settlements, a figure far higher now.
Fighting has continued within the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since August 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the frontline in Ukraine.
On Thursday, Ukrainian forces said they had seized the town of Sudzha, six miles from the border, blowing the face off of a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the process.
Vladimir Putin cut a nervous figure in a recent broadcast of discussions with his ministers released by the Kremlin
Ukrainian soldiers have made incursions into Russia in a bid to draw Putin’s focus away from the frontline (pictured: troops resting at the Russian border)
Once-loyal Putin propagandists such as filmmaker Karen Shakhnazarov are beginning to question the wisdom of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainian troops have pushed into Russia’s Kursk region (seen here in the town of Sudzha, the biggest town to fall under Ukrainian control yet)
Russia is continuing to attack Ukraine, launching a missile strike into the Ukrainian border city of Sumy
With a pre-war population of roughly 5,000, it is the biggest town to fall to Ukraine’s troops since the incursion began.
In the cabinet meeting video, released by the Kremlin, Putin’s deputy premier Denis Manturov told him how 2,000 people were missing along with 840 nurses in areas that have been surrendered to Ukraine.
He was also told grim news about a dozen civilians dead, and 121 wounded, including ten children.
As he was told the news, Putin was seen with a solemn expression on his face, fidgeting with a pen and absent-mindedly rubbing his wrists. He occasionally appeared to grimace as he was told the worst information.
Such non-verbal gestures are seen by experts as reflecting anxiety, stress, or indecision.
They may show the dictator is facing an internal conflict and a lack of confidence, or feels fear, or insecurity. He may be seeking to calm himself in an act of self-soothing.
Putin is more often seen strongly gripping a table with one hand, which could also be a reflection of tension and anxiety. As such, the hand-wringing is unusual for the Russian leader.
During the meeting Putin showed some strange facial movements, at several points appearing to bite his lip, appearing exasperated at what he was being told by his officials.
The meeting came on Monday as Putin faced the fallout from his almost two-and-a-half year war against Ukraine, which he claimed was to make Russia safe.
Instead, he has made little progress in his aim of biting off more Ukrainian territory, and in the process has lost hundreds of thousands of troops as casualties in his war.
Now, he has started to lose Russian territory too, as Ukraine found the weak-spot in his defences – making him appear a loser to ordinary people in his country.
And once-loyal propagandist pundits had started to question Putin.
Karen Shakhnazarov, head of Mosfilm studios and a famous Russian movie director, said on state TV: ‘If there are further blunders like [the strike into Russia by Ukraine], we can lose [the war].
‘And that’s not defeatism. And it’s not alarmism.
‘It’s just an absolute understanding of the price that we and our homeland will have to pay.’
A statue of Vladimir Lenin was heavily damaged during gun battles between Ukrainian and Russian troops in Sudzha
A border crossing point near Sudzha was destroyed amid combat as Kyiv pushed back into Russia earlier this month
Russian attacks in Ukraine have continued regardless of the border conflicts (pictured: residents of Sumy surveying the damage of a Putin missile strike)
Ukrainian forces have also captured a number of Russian troops as they have moved across the region.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked soldiers and commanders for capturing Russian military personnel and said the country’s ‘exchange fund’ that it would use to bargain for the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war was being replenished.
‘I thank all our soldiers and commanders who are capturing Russian military personnel, thereby advancing the release of our warriors and civilians held by Russia,’ Mr Zelensky said in a post on X.
Russian troops have allegedly exhibited barbaric practices on the frontline in retaliation – with one appearing to show a severed head of a Ukrainian soldier impaled on a pole.
Kyiv has reported the video. shared on a pro-Russian telegram account, to the United Nations, accusing those responsible of committing a war crime.
Meanwhile, the eccentric leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, published a video on Saturday of himself driving a Tesla Cybertruck with what looked like a machine gun mounted on top.
Kadyrov, known for extravagant publicity stunts, heaped praise on both the vehicle and Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk on the Telegram messaging app, calling him the ‘strongest genius of modern times’ and inviting Musk to Chechnya.
‘We… await your future products that will help us finish the special military operation,’ Kadyrov wrote, using the official term by which Russia describes its war in Ukraine. There was no immediate comment from Tesla.
Russia has also continued with its assault on Ukraine despite the beleaguered nation’s attempts to divert Putin’s focus away from the former Soviet state.
A Russian missile sparked a blaze in the city of Sumy that injured two people and also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.
Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.