Vladimir Putin is shown grinning as he tells Russian soldiers who have lost legs during his war on Ukraine: “Everything will be fine” during a bizarre clip circulating on social media.
Anton Geraschenko, a former advisor to Ukraine’s Interior Affairs Minister, said the footage demonstrates the 72-year’s lack of “empathy” as he branded him a “psychopath”.
The brief, subtitled film shows Putin surrounded by soldiers with prosthetic limbs.
He asks one: “Are you used to your new condition?” to which he replies: “Yes sir, already new victories, achievements.”
Another adds: “Some guys have been walking with it for two years. A lot of victories, achievements, new ambitions.”
As he smirks, Putin replies: “That’s a very good thing. It’s very good that you have ambitions.
“You went into the combat zone with ambitions because there is nothing to do there without ambitions.
“You need mettle and you have it. Despite such severe injuries, you still have all your ambitions.
“So everything will be good, everything will be fine.”
Mr Geraschenko, sharing the clip on X, comments: “Putin looks very pleased and relieved at a meeting with Russians who lost their legs in the war.
“He’s a psychopath completely devoid of empathy.”
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry’s latest bulletin puts the total number of Russian personnel “eliminated” at 748,950, including 1,580 yesterday.
In addition, Russia has lost equipment including 9,506 tanks, 19,472 armoured fighting vehicles and 21,023 artillery systems, Ukraine claims.
At the start of this month, Putin approved budget plans raising 2025 military spending to record levels as Moscow seeks to defeat Ukraine almost three years after his invasion.
About 32.5% of the budget posted on a government website Sunday has been allocated for national defence, amounting to 13.5 trillion rubles (£114 billion), up from a reported 28.3% this year.
Representatives in both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and Federation Council, had already approved the plans in the past 10 days.
Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022 is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has drained the resources of both sides.
Kyiv has been getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies, but Russia‘s forces are bigger and better equipped, and in recent months the Russian army has gradually been pushing Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas.