A RUSSIAN soldier has threatened to turn weapons on Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin tyrant stares down the barrel of another rebellion.
One veteran who vented his outrage at the bloody invasion of Ukraine in a viral social media post has vowed to spark an uprising if Putin doesn’t “tell the truth”.
Sign up for The Jattvibe newsletter
Thank you!
Russian army veteran Alexander Lunin has threatened to stage an uprising Credit: Reuters
Putin is accused of torturing his own troops Credit: AP
The ex-soldier, called Alexander Lunin, declared he would launch a rebellion on Putin’s regime if the president didn’t meet with him to discuss the abuse of soldiers.
In the video which has been viewed over 11 million times, the veteran said thousands of soldiers were being held in pits and tortured “for refusing to carry out stupid, suicidal orders”.
He also said service members were being abused for refusing to hand over money to their commanders.
Lunin warned “the consequences will be very serious” if he wasn’t set up for meeting with Putin on live TV.
ZEL’S WRATH
Ukraine kicks off massive 40-day blitz of Russia with 660 drone barrage
PUTIN’S PLOT
Fears Putin is preparing ‘false flag’ attack to spark WW3 amid nuke warning
A firefighter works at the site of a Russian military strike in Zaporizhzhia Credit: Reuters
A satellite image shows burning oil storage tanks and smoke rising from the Crimea Bridge on Thursday Credit: Reuters
Lunin said: “If I don’t arrive at the Kremlin in the near future and speak live on the air right next to you, the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin.
“I’m merely passing along the message.”
He claimed that high ranking army and security officials had asked him to film the statement clip.
Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov said he had heard about the viral video but claimed neither he nor Putin had watched it yet.
Kapotnya erupted into a huge fireball after a Ukrainian strike earlier this month Credit: X/Osinttechnical
It comes after Putin faced an uprising by Yevgeny Prigozhin (L) three years ago Credit: AP
“The phrasing sounds rather bizarre. We need to see it first,” Peskov said.
Lunin is a 39-year-old Ukraine war veteran from the Voronezh region in southern Russia, according to local media.
It comes after a failed uprising by the Wagner Group three years ago.
The group’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had vowed to “punish” Russia after he blamed the Kremlin for a deadly missile attack on one of his training camps in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The mercenary head then left Russia as part of a deal to end his uprising with charges against him being dropped.
But he was then killed when his private jet was blown out of the sky.
It also comes amid a string of setbacks for Putin’s war.
Ukraine launched devastating strikes on a key Russian oil depot earlier this month.
And on Thursday, Kyiv turned up the heat on Russia and unleashed a 40-day blitz “aimed at securing an end to the war”.
Russia suffered one of the biggest nighttime attacks – with air defences in a dozen regions, as well as Russian-occupied Crimea, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, intercepting 660 Ukrainian drones.
The barrage came hours after Volodymyr Zelensky said he had approved a massive campaign in an effort to turn the tables on Russia‘s grinding war of aggression.
“I approved a 40-day operation by the Service to influence the aggressor state in order to press for an end to the war,” the Ukrainian President said on Telegram.
His announcement followed his meeting with SBU chief Yevhenii Khmara, who reported on Ukraine’s “plan for long-range sanctions, medium-range sanctions” – a term used by Kyiv to describe its drone strikes.
For months, Ukraine has carried out devastating attacks on targets in Russia or Russian-held areas, with a heavy focus on the oil industry.
The Security Service said it deployed drones to strike Russian navy ships and air defence radars in Kerch, an important port city in Crimea.
Two reconnaissance and mine-laying ships, the Volga and the Vyatka, and the cargo-passenger ferry Petropavlovsk, were the targets, the agency said.
Fires were reported at a chemical plant in Novomoskovsk, which supplies the war machine with materials for explosives and artillery ammunition.
Meanwhile, the power station supplying it with electricity was also blown up.
And a shipbuilding plant in Kerch was also blown up.
This is close to Putin’s £3billion Crimean Bridge which was closed again today amid fears the giant crossing is to be targeted by Ukraine.
Early this week, Zelensky said that S-400 and S-500 anti-ballistic systems, backed by Pantsir air defence systems, have been deployed in “hundreds of launchers” around the region to protect it.
“Right now, the Russian leadership is pulling more air defence systems toward Moscow, toward Valdai, and toward Putin’s bridge across the Kerch Strait – at the expense of air defences in other directions,” he added.
He described this redistribution as a sign that Russia is willing to thin out defences across much of its territory in order to reinforce the capital and a small number of priority locations.
