How ‘deluded’ Putin thought Ukraine invasion would break up Nato & have West bowing down to Russia, leaked docs show

VLADIMIR Putin believed NATO would disintegrate and Western countries beg Russia not to harm them after he invaded Ukraine, leaked spy docs show.

As the Russian death toll in the Ukraine war passes the 150,000 mark, fresh evidence is emerging about just how deluded the Russian tyrant was about a quick victory.

Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine just over a year ago in the belief he could secure a lightning victory by seizing the capital Kyiv and "decapitating" the leadership in three days.

But the hours and days after the war began, the chilling sight of helicopters swarming towards Kyiv gave way to harrowing images of charred armoured columns ambushed by Ukrainians.

Leaked documents from inside the FSB security service, obtained by The Sun Online, reveal that Putin expected the West to quake in fear after a lightning victory then for NATO to collapse.

They come from a source known as Wind of Change and were sent to Russian human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of Gulagu, which highlights abuses in the country’s prisons.

The emails are believed to originally be the work of one FSB officer but it's thought several now contribute to the emails.

Putin has cited Poland and the Baltic states joining NATO as a security threat and used it to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

In one email sent soon after the invasion, Wind of Change outlines what Putin imagined would happen after he invaded and that included bringing NATO to heel.

There would be an ultimatum issued to the West to accept the Russian occupation and a no-fly zone declared over Poland and the Baltic states.

Chillingly Russia’s “nuclear triad would be activated”, says the source, referring to land, air and submarine launched nuclear weapons.

That would lead to the "withdrawal of several countries from NATO” and possibly the European Union.

All of which would lead to a “fundamental collapse of the West within the time allotted (by Putin) after the ultimatum was issued”.

Terrified Western countries would issue “separate appeals to Russia that they are not conducting aggressive actions against Russia and they are not part of the possible war”.

All this would lead to Russia having power comparable to the former Soviet Union, which the source refers to by its formal title, the USSR.

Putin, who served in the Soviet-era KGB, has previously called the collapse of the USSR, which was ruled from Moscow, as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century,

"Russia’s strength in position (for negotiations) will be comparable to that of the USSR,” writes Wind of Change.