‘Critically ill’ Putin wheezes through meeting

New fears are growing over Vladimir Putin’s health after he looked sick in a public appearance while a notorious ally sent a chilling object to the EU parliament.

New concerns have arisen around Vladimir Putin’s health after the Russian leader appeared to wheeze and gasp through a meeting with grieving mums whose children were killed in Ukraine.

Russia’s president – who is reportedly “critically ill” – met with a carefully selected group of parents as he sat down with them to have tea, cakes and fresh berries, the Sun reports.

Mr Putin appeared physically uncomfortable and breathless as he spoke – stopping to clear his throat on multi occasions and struggling with his words.

Vladimir Putin appeared uncomfortable during the meeting. Picture: Supplied

“I would like you to know that, that I personally, and the whole leadership of the country – we share your pain,” Vlad told the women in at a meeting at his official residence.

“We understand that nothing can replace the loss of a son – especially for a mother … we share this pain.”

Furious mums and wives raged at the “shame” of how Mr Putin avoided them and their complaints about using their men as cannon fodder.

Rumours around Mr Putin’s health continue to swirl after this week he was pictures with a discoloured hand while meeting with his counterpart from Cuba.

Vladimir Putin appeared to gasp for breath as he spoke to the Russian mothers who have lost children in Ukraine. Picture: Supplied

He appeared shaky, unsteady and was seen gripping his chair amid rumours he is suffering from cancer and Parkinson’s.

It follows claims by senior Ukrainian figures that Mr Putin fears he will be killed if he loses the war in Ukraine, and so is “fighting for his life”.

Mr Putin put on a brave face as he met with the mums and wives – but the meeting, like most of Mr Putin’s appearances, was carefully stage managed.

Vladimir Putin's hand appeared purple as he gripped his chair and fidgeted at a meeting earlier this week. Picture: Supplied

Mr Putin’s officials vetoed him meeting mothers wanting to voice fury about the way their men have been put in harm’s way by his shambolic mobilisation.

It is not clear that he met the mother of any Russian soldiers killed or maimed in Ukraine, a figure said by the US to exceed 100,000.

Russian journalists quickly identified some of the women hand-picked to meet Putin as known loyalists.

Ironically, Mr Putin told the 17 “mothers” to beware of “fakes, deception, lies” on the web about his war in Ukraine.

“You can’t trust anything” on the internet about the conflict, he said.

Vladimir Putin met with women who have lost children in the Ukraine conflict. Picture: AP

PUTIN ALLY SENDS CHILLING OBJECT TO EU

Meanwhile, Putin’s most notorious war lord has sent a chilling item to EU parliament in response to being linked with terrorism.

It comes after the EU officially called Russia a “state sponsor” of terrorism over its actions in Ukraine but the move was denounced by Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin who sent them a violin case, with a chilling item inside.

The Putin ally sent a case with a sledgehammer and fake traces of blood on it, in a stunt believed to be a sick warning after a citizen of Russia was brutally executed with a sledgehammer earlier this month.

The sledgehammer sent to the EU parliament members.

The man killed was Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, who was believed to have defected to Ukraine but was reportedly kidnapped and sent back to the merciless Wagner group in Russia.

It is there that the Wagner thugs filmed the man‘s head taped to a brick wall and subsequently smashed in with a sledgehammer.

The gruesome video was watched by Mr Nuzhin's family who were left shook and “shrieked with horror”.

“Today I held a meeting of the commanders of the ‘Wagner’ PMC and told them this sad news,” Prigozhin said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the owner of the merciless Wagner group.

“I don't know what law governs the European parliament, but according to our legislation, from today we declare the European parliament dissolved.

“But before this procedure takes legal effect, I am entrusted to submit an information case to the European parliament. If you have their contact, I suggest that we do it together – prepare and send it.”

The transfer of the violin case was filmed, and handed over to a representative of the Pro-Kremlin Cyber Front Z telegram channel, who then shared the footage.

US WARNS OF MASS POISONING IN UKRAINE

It comes amid fears Mr Putin could turn to more extreme measures to force Ukraine into surrendering, including unleashing deadly nerve agent Novichok in a mass poisoning.

In 2018, the deadly nerve agent was used against Sergei Skripal in the Salisbury poisoning by Russian spies sent to wipe out the former Kremlin intelligence officer.

Mr Putin's political rival Alexei Navalny was also targeted with the compound during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow in 2020, where the opposition leader fell ill and was subsequently put into a coma as a result of the attack.

And it’s now feared Moscow could harness the poison to target mass casualties rather than just individuals in a bid to turn around the war which is approaching its ten month and with little signs of stopping.

It’s believed that US President Joe Biden is working to ensure troops fighting to defend Ukraine are prepared for such a devastating threat.

According to a leak received by The Sun from an aide, the US has been aware for some time of Russia’s moves to increase their capacity for chemical weapons.

RUSSIA MOVES TO INTRODUCE ‘ABSURD LAW’

Russian politicians unanimously approved a bill banning all forms of LGBTQ “propaganda” in a final reading on Thursday, as Moscow presses ahead with its conservative drive at home while its troops fight in Ukraine.

Activists said the new legislation ramps up the crackdown on “non-traditional” sexual relationships in Russia, affecting everything from books and films to social media posts, and vowed to keep fighting for the rights of minorities.

President Vladimir Putin has sought to promote his country as the antithesis of Western liberal values and pushed an increasingly conservative agenda to rally his core constituency amid raging tensions with the world’s top democracies.

Moscow already has a law against “propaganda” directed at minors regarding LGBTQ relationships. The new bill would broaden that rule to adults.

The legislation passed by the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Thursday bars all mention of what authorities deem “gay propaganda” in media, cinema, books and advertisements.

A woman holds the gay rights' movement rainbow flag during the gay pride rally in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2017.

It also prohibits “the propaganda of paedophilia and sex change”. “Any propaganda of non-traditional relationships will have consequences,” the speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said on social media.

He said the bill “will protect our children and the future of our country from the darkness spread by the US and European states”.

The legislation will need to be backed by the upper house and Putin before becoming a law, steps seen as a formality.

The bill introduces hefty fines of up to 10 million roubles ($165,400) for people who ignore the new ban.

Rights groups said the legislation will effectively ban all public promotion of LGBTQ rights in Russia and vowed to keep up the fight.

“We plan on protecting people from this absurd law,” said Natalia Soloviova, the chairperson of the Russian LGBT Network organisation.

“LGBTQ people are not leaving, they still need our help and support,” she told AFP.

The exact consequences of the new legislation are still unclear, and rights activists warned that it could be applied indiscriminately.

BABY KILLED IN MATERNITY WARD STRIKE

Russian strikes killed a newborn baby at a maternity ward in southern Ukraine, and targeted energy infrastructure in the capital Kyiv, the latest in a series of “monstrous” attacks that have caused nationwide blackouts.

The baby’s mother – who had just given birth – was buried in the rubble, along with the doctor who delivered the child – but survived when rescuers found them and pulled them out on Wednesday.

Ukrainian emergency services said the Russian rockets smashed into a hospital in Vilniansk, a town in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, that houses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant under Russian control.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the strikes as Russian “terror and murder”.

Emergency service workers were shown in official footage wearing protective helmets with head lamps attached trying to dig out a man trapped waist-deep from rubble.

Rescuers clear debris of the destroyed two-storey maternity building in the town of Vilniansk, southern Zaporizhzhia region. Picture: AFP.

“The two-storey building of the maternity ward was destroyed,” the emergency services said in a statement, adding that there was a woman, baby and doctor in the building at the time of the attack.

“The baby … died. The woman and doctor were rescued from the rubble,” they added. Nobody else was trapped under the debris.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, wrote on the Telegram messaging app: “At night, Russian monsters launched huge rockets at the small maternity ward of the hospital in Vilniansk.”

“Grief overwhelms our hearts – a baby was killed who had just seen the light of day.

“Rescuers are working at the site.”

A woman with a newborn baby as well as a doctor were inside the building at the time of the strike. Picture: AFP.

The strikes are only the latest to hit Ukrainian medical facilities since Russia invaded on February 24.

The World Health Organisation has warned that recent systematic attacks on the energy grid are causing severe disruptions at Ukrainian hospitals. The WHO said it had recorded more than 700 attacks on Ukraine’s health facilities since Russia’s invasion began.

In the eastern region of Kharkiv, Russian strikes on a residential building and a clinic left two people dead, the governor said.

The WHO has recorded 700 attacks on Ukraine’s health facilities since Russia’s invasion began. Picture: AFP.

An infamous attack last March on a hospital in the war-battered coastal city of Mariupol left at least three dead in an attack widely condemned by Ukraine and its allies and that Moscow insisted was “staged”.

Russian strikes were also targeting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday, with the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko saying important infrastructure had been hit.

“The enemy is launching missile strikes on critical infrastructure in Kyiv city. Stay in shelters until the air alert ends,” Kyiv city administration said on social media.

The western city of Lviv was also left without power after being targeted by strikes, the mayor said.

Russia has been relentless in targeting vital infrastructure in Ukraine. Picture: AFP.

PUTIN ‘FIGHTING FOR LIFE’

Vladimir Putin is “fighting for his life” after Russia’s retreat from Kherson last week, according to a Ukrainian presidential aide.

“He is fighting for his life now. If he loses the war, at least in the minds of the Russians, it means the end. The end of him as a political figure. And possibly in the physical sense.”

RUSSIA ‘STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM’

The European parliament meanwhile recognised Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” over its nine-month invasion of Ukraine and urged the 27-nation EU to follow suit.

Kyiv has for months called on the international community to make the declaration, and the Strasbourg parliament’s decision will likely anger Moscow.

“The deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amount to acts of terror,” a resolution approved by EU politicians said.

Ukraine praised the decision.

“Russia must be isolated at all levels and held accountable in order to end its longstanding policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

Separately, Ukraine’s security service announced that it had seized “pro-Russian literature” and cash and interrogated dozens during raids of several Orthodox monasteries that spurred a backlash from the Kremlin.

The raided locations included the 11th century Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv, a UNESCO Heritage site.

The SBU said it had probed 850 people including Russian and Ukrainian citizens and that “more than 50 underwent in-depth counterintelligence interviews”.

“Some of them presented passports and Soviet-era military IDs or did not have original documents at all, but only copies of them, or had Ukrainian passports with indications of forgery or damage,” the SBU said.

– with AFP