Fears World War Three could explode have ramped up amid claims Putin is preparing a ‘landgrab’ in a bid to ‘re-establish the Soviet Union’.
Experts have warned the Russian tyrant will not rein in his murderous ambitions to expand his territory – even if he is offered a peace deal to end the war with Ukraine by incoming US president, Donald Trump.
And defence analysts have also warned Putin could try to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky as part of his sinister long-term ambitions to defeat his eastern bloc neighbour, which he invaded almost three years ago.
Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert from the University of Buckingham, claims Putin has no intention of giving up his quest to seize more land.
The Emeritus scholar instead warned the Russian despot was eager to restore of the old borders of the USSR, which collapsed in 1991 after it lost the Cold War.
And chillingly, Prof Glees feared should Putin carry out such an act, it would drag the globe into the next apocalypse, with Trump’s ‘foolish and false peace deal’ starting the ‘countdown to war’.
‘[Putin] will turn to his strategic plan of re-establishing the USSR and its satellite system in all but name by turning on all the post-1997 Nato states,’ Prof Glees told the Mirror.
‘He’s said it is his intention to force them to leave Nato and I believe we should take the threat very seriously, as we should have taken all his threats seriously but signally failed to do.
The world could be on the brink of WW3, defence experts fear, with Russia, Iran, China and North Korea all being a potential threat to the West
A serviceman of 24th Mechanized brigade named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a 2s5 ‘Hyacinth-s’ self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops at a front line
Putin is looking to set up a new Soviet Union, according to a top defence expert
‘We’re talking about Finland, Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia; Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and West Macedonia. In other words, a really big grab by Putin, so big that I am confident we will oppose him by force and that will be how WW3 will develop.’
Putin has already recruited thousands of soldiers from North Korea to fight on the frontlines and has threated to use nuclear weapons against the West – while allies Iran have supplied the Kremlin with drones to bomb Ukrainian cities
Meanwhile, Trump – the first convicted criminal to be elected as US president – has warned he would be slashing the military aid to Kyiv and could pull the US out of Nato, in a move that has alarmed America’s allies in the West.
He has called for an immediate ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, writing on his Truth Social website: ‘Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness.’
But Prof Glees a truce would not stop Putin from continuing with his onslaught on mainland Europe.
The academic’s comments came as military and defence chiefs warned the Third World War had already kicked off.
National security expert Mark Toth and former US intelligence officer Colonel Jonathan Sweet are among those arguing that World War III is already upon us.
‘Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was the opening stage (of World War Three). It was his marker to the global community that the world order as it had existed since the end of the Second World War was no longer,’ Sweet and Toth said.
Pictured is what a potential landgrab by Putin could look like, according to defence expert Professor Anthony Glees
‘Russia continues to play the victim while escalating against Ukrainian civilians,’ they said, underscoring the Kremlin’s intent to destabilise its adversaries.
The pair claimed the a global conflict in the 21st century might not necessarily look like the hellscapes of the First and Second world wars.
‘This third global conflagration doesn’t look or feel like what Hollywood envisioned,’ they claim.
‘No mushroom clouds or apocalyptic wastelands. Rather, it is war by a thousand cuts, conducted across multi-regional and multi-domain battlefields.
The concept of hybrid warfare lies at the heart of arguments that World War III is already underway.
Unlike traditional wars, today’s conflicts are fought not just with guns and bombs but through all manner of tactics including cyberattacks, disinformation, sabotage and economic manipulation.
Toth and Sweet point the finger at Vladimir Putin as the main driver of the march toward disaster and say Russia’s strategy spans multiple arenas – not just in Ukraine, but from Africa to beyond Earth’s atmosphere and the digital theatre.
In Africa, Russian paramilitary groups, such as the Wagner Group, have fuelled coups, destabilising democracies and consolidating Moscow’s influence.
And in Europe, espionage and damaging covert operations have resurfaced with Cold War intensity.
It’s feared Putin would never stick to a peace deal put forward by incoming US president, Donald Trump (both are pictured together in 2019)
Russian servicemen jump off a T-90M Proryv tank during a combat training for assault units in an undisclosed location
Arson attacks targeting logistical hubs across the West to disrupt critical supply chains while daring assassinations cut down Russian dissidents and political opponents in the streets
According to Sweet and Toth, this unconventional ‘grey zone’ warfare is Vladimir Putin’s area of expertise.
‘Putin’s ability to conduct hybrid warfare is arguably his greatest strength,’ they emphasise, pointing to Russia’s continent-spanning efforts to spread disinformation, construct pro-Kremlin narratives and influence governments and citizens alike to turn against the West.’
Recent Ukrainian strikes using American ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow missiles prompted Putin to unleash the never-before-seen ‘Oreshnik’ – a new hypersonic ballistic missile – on Ukraine.
Ukrainian servicemen of the 43 Artillery Brigade fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled cannon towards Russian positions at a front line in the Donetsk region
Days prior, the Kremlin chief signed into effect an amended nuclear doctrine which officially lowered the threshold under which Moscow can deploy their devastating weapons.
Although their ranks are suffering heavy casualties, the Russian army is advancing westward in Ukraine at a rate faster than any other time after the initial days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London over the past month.
The Russian President also declared this week that Moscow could soon begin to strike ‘decision-making centres’ in Kyiv if Ukraine continues to hit targets in Russia with US and UK missiles as more than a million Ukrainians without electricity in freezing cold temperatures following mass drone and rocket attacks.
Elsewhere, the Middle East is reeling amid the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel – a dastardly scheme that triggered an inferno of violence and has left tens of thousands dead in Gaza and Lebanon with no clear end in sight.
Hamas and Hezbollah’s chief backer Iran has further escalated the situation with missile and drone strikes against Israel, while analysts suspect Tehran is drawing dangerously close to developing nuclear weapons.
And in the Indo-Pacific, China’s escalating aggression against Taiwan and the Philippines has stoked fears of an explosive clash in this strategically critical region.
Recent months have seen Beijing adopt an increasingly threatening posture with top US defence officials warning China could attempt an invasion of Taiwan well before the end of the decade.
All the while, Kim Jong Un stands by, his fist clenching the keys to North Korea’s burgeoning nuclear arsenal having completely severed ties with South Korea and sent troops to aid Putin in his war on Ukraine.
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