Russia President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that he is ready to target “decision makers” in Ukraine is a thinly veiled threat to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former British army officer has said.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Crawford also believes the Russian President has “cried wolf” so often Western leaders do not believe he will make any serious attempt to do so.

Putin today escalated rhetoric in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, suggesting that he was ready to attack “decision-making centres”. This could a reference to Mr Zelensky himself, the Ukrainian Rada, or both.

Lt Col Crawford, who served for 20 years in the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, told Express.co.uk: “I would read it that way. I think there’s nothing he’d rather do than eliminate Zelensky and that was his plan when he launched his three day special military operation way back in February 2022.

“Plus ‘decision centres’ would include parliament, government buildings, senior military headquarters and possible centres of local government too.”

However, he added: “All in his usual style of vague bluff and bluster.

“But he’s cried wolf so many times now that nobody in the west really believes it because the truth is he daren’t step over the mark in case the USA and NATO become directly involved.”

“The West just has to continue calling his bluff.”

Speaking at a summit in Kazakhstan, Putin said that Russia’s recent missile and drone strikes on Ukraine were in response to the use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukrainian forces against Russian targets.

He also highlighted the deployment of Russia’s new intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, boasting about its capacity to “turn everything to dust” with six warheads and a speed 10 times faster than sound.

The comments came as Ukraine suffered another “massive” wave of Russian strikes.

This assault, the second large-scale attack on Ukraine’s power grid in under two weeks, underscores Russia’s apparent strategy to disrupt Ukraine‘s energy supplies as winter approaches.

According to Ukrainian officials, Thursday’s barrage left over a million households without power and caused widespread outages in cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lutsk, and Rivne.

Emergency power cuts were implemented nationwide, and “points of invincibility” were established to provide essential services during blackouts.

Ukraine‘s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko described the strikes as targeting energy infrastructure “all over Ukraine.”

Mr Zelensky characterised the attacks as an “insidious escalation,” noting the use of Kalibr cruise missiles loaded with cluster munitions, which pose significant risks to civilians.

Despite Russia’s claim to have targeted only military-related facilities, Ukrainian sources reported widespread civilian impact.

Ukraine’s air force reported shooting down 76 cruise missiles and 32 drones in Thursday’s attack but admitted losing track of 62 drones, likely jammed by electronic warfare systems.

Such massive barrages are part of what Ukrainian officials term Russia‘s “weaponisation of winter,” an attempt to undermine both civilian morale and Ukraine’s military capacity.

Western allies have condemned the attacks and highlighted Russia’s collaboration with countries like North Korea for military supplies, exacerbating the situation.