VLADIMIR Putin’s army has just weeks to clinch a “symbolic” victory in a Ukrainian key city – or face a killer winter in the trenches.
The tyrant has thrown closing in on 200,000 troops into his stalling meatgrinder in an ongoing 18-month attempt to capture Pokrovsk.
Intelligence suggests at least 135,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured in the battle for the battered stronghold.
But after a lengthy fight and increasingly heavy costs for his military, ex-intel officer Philip Ingram warned it is “simply too big a defeat [for Putin] to walk away from”.
It means the megalomaniac faces the reality of being triumphant in his “symbolic” win – or many of his men likely being killed by Ukraine’s notoriously harsh winter.
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Temperatures in Ukraine can hit as low as -31C and can see average conditions plunge as deep as -8C – with blizzards capable of dumping up to 20 inches of snow in one day.
His soldiers could face deadly conditions akin to those suffered in the failed Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 or the botched Nazi attack on Russia in 1941.
Both disastrous campaigns saw the snow turn red with blood as the bodies piled high, shivering men froze in their trenches, and tanks ground to a halt as their engines shut down.
Now with Putin’s fight for Pokrovsk dragging on – his men could face similarly brutal conditions.
Russian forces have been circling in on the south-eastern city for more than a year and a half now – but have so far failed to capture it.
But fighting inside the stronghold has intensified this week, with Putin aching for a victory to stop his people losing faith in his war.
In the latest edition of The Sun’s Battle Plans Exposed, former Nato planner Ingram explained how Putin’s winter strategy is kicking in.
He said: “We’re now seeing Putin’s desperate winter strategy emerging for Ukraine.
“There have been worrying developments in Minsk and Pokrovsk.
“Fierce fighting is taking place and the fog of war has descended, making reporting very difficult.
“However, things may not appear as bad as they first seem. In fact, it may be playing into Ukraine’s hands as winter approaches.”
Ingram said how Putin will now have “one last roll of the dice” to “claw some semblance of a victory before the ice and snow freezes the current mud filled battlefield”
He explained how although the strategic value of Pokrovsk has largely diminished, it would still represent a huge win for Moscow.
Pokrovsk falling would also allow Putin to push north and west and threaten cities at the core of Ukraine’s defence in the Donbas, amid his plot to gain control of the whole of Ukraine’s industrial east.
It includes the two largest Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Ingram said: “Bear in mind the amount of soldiers and equipment Putin has expended so far in the 18-month battle.
“The town, to use some American parlance, has been rubbelised – the buildings have been destroyed, the logistic nodes that were so important and strategically vital have been effectively nullified.
“The railway lines are not working, the roads are almost impassable.
“Some Ukrainian figures suggest in the battle for Pokrovsk alone 135,000 troops have been killed or wounded – it could be more.
“And we know to try and capture through the whole of the area of the disputed Donbas, British military intelligence or defence intelligence has suggested at current advanced rates it would take another four years and two million Russian casualties.”
Russia this week crowed it had made huge advances on the city centre in a pincer movement and has encircled Ukrainian forces inside.
It comes as unverified footage emerged appearing to show Moscow’s soldiers entering the city under the cover of fog.
The video shows soldiers riding motorcycles and buggies and in doorless cars, advancing through mist-shrouded streets.
Ukraine has denied reports that Russia’s army is closing in on the city centre – despite fears mounting the rail hub is on the brink of capture.
Only a few hundreds people remain in the shattered city, once home to 60,000, with rows of burnt-out buildings lining the debris-filled roads.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko warned on Tuesday: “We are losing Pokrovsk.
“The Russians have broken into the city.”
Russian troops are now working to close the gap and fully encircle Pokrovsk – with Ukraine’s military desperately staging counterattacks.
Ukraine’s 7th Airborne Assault Corps said weather conditions – especially dense fog – has prompted Moscow to quickly push more troops into the besieged city as vehicles would normally immediately be wiped out by Ukrainian drones.
President Voloydymyr Zelensky described the situation as “difficult” – with between 300 and 500 Russians understood to be inside the city.
Ingram added: “Capturing Pokrovsk has become something more for Russia, something symbolic – kind of like Bakhmut was a few years ago.
“While it was once a key logistic hub, now after 18 months of siege and enormous losses, it is a critical target for Putin to sell victory to his own people.
“After expending staggering amounts of men and material, it’s a face-saving objective – a victory Putin absolutely must deliver.”
WINTER WAR DISASTERS
PUTIN should perhaps familiarise himself with history if he plans on keeping poorly equipped Russian soldiers on the frontline.
Russia troops could face freezing to death and succumbing to disease like these famous military catastrophes.
THE WINTER WAR
Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939 – but an exceptionally cold winter led to disaster for the Russians.
Temperatures dropped to -43C as they hit record lows, and the Russians found themselves up against a vastly better prepared force.
Soviet tanks struggled through the forests and were still painted in olive drab, standing out like a sore thumb against the winter snows.
It is estimated more than 60,000 Russian soldiers suffered frostbite or were sick from the cold during the fighting from November to March.
The much smaller Finnish forces brutalised the ill-prepared Russians, with the Soviets losing nearly 400,000 people compared to Finns 70,000.
HITLER’S FAILURE
Adolf Hitler made one of the biggest mistakes of World War 2 when he opened up the eastern front against the Soviet Union in 1941.
Not learning anything from the Russian failures around 18 months previously, the Nazis steamed in expected to bulldoze through to Moscow.
Instead they found themselves bogged down and not making the progress they wanted – with the winter then blowing in.
Temperatures dropped to -45C and untold numbers of Germans ended up freezing to death as they were not prepared to fight in the snow.
Weapons and vehicles stopped working – and yet Mad Adolf kept ordering his lightly clad men to push towards Moscow – costing them nearly 1million soldiers through Operation Barbarossa.
THE CRIMEAN WAR
Britain also suffered at the brutal hand of the winter during the Crimean War – when a storm claimed key winter supplies as it sunk 30 ships in the Black Sea.
Soldiers were left without food, fuel and winter uniforms.
The storm also turned the landscape into a bog and many soldiers suffered from cold and sickness.
Contagious diseases such as typhoid, cholera and dysentery ran rampant – with sometimes one in three troops being fit to fight.
British forces lost around 21,000 men throughout the war – with 16,000 of them dying due to preventable illness.
And these problems also manifested for the Russians, with the siege of Sevastopol seeing 143,000 dead – with 89,000 of them killed by diseases.
