Vladimir Putin is facing mutiny from his biggest war Ukraine backers amid fears of an impending coup. An unprecedented wave of defeatism over the war has gripped the “toxic” Kremlin dictator’s most ardent supporters. This follows a wave of crippling Ukrainian drone and missile strikes which have paralysed Putin’s oil exports and savaged his key military factories. Russian gains on the frontline have ground to a virtual halt, with some reversals, amid catastrophic losses of 8,000 or more soldiers a week. “We’ve been kicked… again,” raged state TV propagandist and war pundit Aleksandr Sladkov, after five days of strikes Russian’s leading oil exporting hub unimpeded by Russian air defenses. The port in Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland is burning again.” He appeared to mock a visibly aging Putin, 73, likening him to dimwitted Baldrick in British comedy series Blackadder, as the tight curbs on criticizing the Kremlin warmonger were abandoned. “Much is being said behind the scenes about our possibly cunning plan,” he declared.