Vladimir Putin 'knows' Trump's deal will fail - 'and he's already planning to kill Zelensky'

World affairs expert, professor Anthony Glees, said Russian president Vladimir Putin knows Donald Trump's Ukraine deal 'would not be worth the paper it's written on'

Vladimir Putin "knows" that Donald Trump's Ukraine deal will fail, so he is "lining his ducks in a row" to prepare for his return to the White House, a world affairs expert has told the Mirror.

Professor Anthony Glees said the Russian dictator's approval of a new nuclear doctrine seems to show that Putin is thinking ahead of Trump's return to power, days after Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to fire US-supplied missiles into Russia. But in contrast with the current president, even before moving into the Oval Office, Trump has vowed to limit American support for Ukraine and end the war as soon as possible.

According to Professor Glees, who is a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, the Russian president is aware that Trump's modus operandi won't work - and he will seek to take all of Ukraine and kill its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to ensure that his country won't be defeated in the war. In an exclusive interview after Ukraine launched six long-range missiles, hitting a military facility in Russia, and Putin signed a new decree to approve the use of nuclear weapons "under threat", the expert told The Mirror: "He [Putin] knows Trump will make peace on the basis of Putin having what he's already taken, forcing Ukraine to eschew NATO membership for 25 years.

"Putin knows this deal would not be worth the paper it's written on and after a while will seek to take all of Ukraine and kill Zelensky into the bargain." The expert added that Putin is aware that the new American administration is run by "peaceniks" as proven by Donald Trump Jnr's criticism of Biden after he allowed Ukraine to use missiles supplied by the US to attack Russia.

The president-elect's son wrote on X: "The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives. Gotta lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!!! Imbeciles!"

Professor Glees said the "military-industrial complex" is " the hippy term used by peaceniks from the 1960s and 1970s" he explained: "It's highly significant because Trump is actually a peacenik. He did not like warfighting, eschewed the chance of military service, and wanted peace at any price. Like Nevile Chamberlain Trump believes you can buy peace by giving dictators what they want, in the vain hope that they will not then ask for more. History shows how foolish this is."

The expert said Putin's new doctrine shows that the dictator is saying "with cold brazen cheek" that he "will feel free to launch a nuclear strike either on Ukraine or even on the USA and/or the UK if he feels like it." Professor Glees said: "He's saying, with cold brazen cheek, not just that he would deploy nukes if Russia (or Belarus) faced aggression from conventional force of arms if this were to 'threaten our sovereignty or territorial integrity' but that if a conventionally armed state (i.e. Ukraine) were 'supported' by a nuclear power (i.e. The USA - or the UK), this would be considered a 'joint attack' on Russia and be met by a nuclear response."

According to the expert, we should be worried about "our weakness" and show a strong response to Putin's threats. However, Professor Glees said that after Biden's presidency, it won't be possible to prevent Trump from giving Putin Ukraine if that's what the president-elect is planning to do.

As threats of a widespread conflict continue, with the risk of both the US and the UK being dragged into a third-world war, the professor said we are now "fighting for our way of life" and will need to "arm ourselves with conventional weapons and conventional forces as quickly as we can." Professor Glees explained: "The thing that is most worrying is our weakness.

"We should tell Putin that we won't listen to these threats any longer, if he wants to fight us he'd better bring it on. If he attacks us and NATO we will obliterate him. Sadly we're not able to prevent Trump from giving Putin Ukraine, either early next year or over the years to come. That's the result of our being too weak in conventional terms and having a US president who was too fearful to back up his fine words with the fine weapons Ukraine needed."

He continued: "But it's clear to me that there's nothing we can do between now and Trump taking over that can save Ukraine in the long run other than arm ourselves with conventional weapons and conventional forces as quickly as we can. This is a huge ask from a cash-strapped UK and a cash-strapped EU. But we're fighting for our way of life here and that does not come cheap."

After news of the six missiles being launched into Russia emerged, professor Glees said he doesn't think it will trigger a nuclear response at the moment - but added that we will have to wait to see whether Trump says anything in response to the latest developments. The document signed by Putin on Tuesday is an update to a previous version from June 2020 and has been described as a way for the president to save his face as his invasion of Ukraine edges closer to 1,000 days.

The new doctrine says Russia may use nuclear deterrence to prevent aggression by hostile powers and military blocks that have weapons of mass destruction or large arsenals of conventional weapons, RT reported. According to the document, countries that provide their sovereign space for other parties to prepare and launch an attack against Russia are also subject to the policy.

The document approved by the Russian president also says that an attack by a single member of a block, even one that doesn't have nuclear weapons, will be considered an attack by the entire collective. Dmitry Medvedev, who has been serving as deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020, said that in this case, this could amount to WW3.

In a chilling warning, the politician wrote on his Telegram channel that "what is happening may have very serious consequences." He said: "It is not so important who and when made the decision to use NATO tactical ballistic and long-range cruise missiles 'deep into the territory' of Russia. Moreover, there have already been attempts to use them against our country."

He added: "It is not so important how many of them the enemy has today. It is also important to note that their use, in the opinion of our enemies, should have not only a military but also an informational effect. It is not so important that these missiles will not be able to make a significant contribution to the enemy's military actions. It is not so important that with such decisions the current US administration is deliberately creating such an escalation of the conflict that Trump's team will have to deal with."

Medvedev continued: "One thing is important - what the Head of the Russian State said on September 12. As a result, a new version of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence was approved today. The use of alliance missiles in this way can now be qualified as an attack by the bloc's countries on Russia. In this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII."

This has led several NATO countries to publish information advising their population on how to prepare for a possible war. Residents of Sweden have been given some updated information on what to do in case war breaks out.