Vladimir Putin commanding 'much less respect' as war 'not shaping up' for Russia

Ukrainian spies "are actively trying to kill" Russian President Vladimir Putin and he knows it, The Daily Beast reports.

As for who tops Ukraine's hit list, he said Putin is number one "because he coordinates and decides what happens."

Per The Daily Beast, "Moscow accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin earlier this month in a brazen drone attack on the Kremlin, though the Russian leader was not present at the time the drones struck," and another "unsuccessful assignation" occurred in April. late April.

READ MORE: Is Putin losing the war in Ukraine?

"Putin is noticing that we are getting closer and closer to him, but he is also afraid of being killed by his own people," Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate, said during an interview with German news outlet, Welt.

According to The Daily Beast, "Skibitsky was quoted as saying, describing the assassination of Putin as a top priority."

This comes after the publication also reports the Russian president, along with the Kremlin, are now running a "dystopian 'comedy club,'" according to ex-Moscow officials.

Putin's former speechwriter, Abbas Galyamov, told The Daily Beast, "There is much less respect for them now than before," adding, "If not for the political repression, all Russians would have thought of them as inhumane and mocked them."

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He continued, "Putin and his guys are turning into a comedy club, they are not lords of the ring any longer. The Kremlin is making mistake after mistake, which makes it clear to the public that they are just a bunch of ridiculous fools."

The former Putin staffer emphasized, "Humor makes people forget about fear."

Additionally, The Daily Beast reports Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Wednesday in a video interview the Russia-Ukraine war is "not shaping up" to be a success for Russia.

Prigozhin, who's known as Putin's "chef," said the battle "was launched for the sake of denazification, and we made Ukraine a nation that is known throughout the whole world. They are like the Greeks or Romans in a period of prosperity."

The mercenary boss emphasized, "This dichotomy can end with revolution as in 1917, when first the soldiers will rise up, and then their loved ones… There are now tens of thousands of relatives of those killed. There will probably be hundreds of thousands," adding, "I recommend to Russia's elite to gather your fucking youths, send them to war, and then when you go to the funeral, when you start burying them, then people will say, now everything is fair."

Furthermore, Prigozhin said, "As for the 'demilitarization,' if they had 500 tanks at the beginning of the [war], they now have 5,000 of them. If 20,000 fighters skillfully fought then, now there are 400,000. How did we demilitarize it? It turns out that on the contrary, we, who the hell knows how, have militarized Ukraine. We came aggressively, walked all over the territory of Ukraine in our boots in search of Nazis. While we were searching for Nazis, we knocked out everyone we could. We approached Kyiv… screwed up and withdrew. Then on to Kherson, we screwed up and withdrew. And somehow it's not shaping up for us."

READ MORE: Moscow alleges Putin assassination attempt as Ukrainian drones reportedly hit Kremlin

The Daily Beast's report is available at this link (subscription required).