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 in the balls 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 defences. The port in Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland is burning again.” He appeared to mock a visibly ageing Putin, 73, likening him to dimwitted Baldrick in British comedy series Blackadder, as the tight curbs on criticising the Kremlin warmonger were abandoned. “Much is being said behind the scenes about our possibly cunning plan,” he declared.

“But some doubt it: what kind of cunning plan is this, which sees our businesses swatted like flies with a flyswatter?”

Russia‘s largest pro-war “Z-blogger” on Telegram, Yuriy Podolyaka accused the Putin regime of military ineptitude, claiming: “I don’t think we’ll be able to turn the tide here in the next few months.”

He openly praised the Ukrainians.

“Our enemy is very, very serious, and, incidentally, very fast-learning, much faster than we are.”

The unprecedented backlash further hit Putin with another war fanatic Maksim Kalashnikov candidly stating the Russian elite has lost faith in the 5ft 7 inch Kremlin tyrant.

“Now our ruling [class] view the current top leadership as a toxic figure – not even an asset, but a liability,” he said.

“They very much want this war to end, for the return of the old good times, when one could freely travel to the West, not fear sanctions, sell hydrocarbons, and regain the European market.”

Symbolically, he spoke in front of a picture of Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union, briefly toppled in a 1991 coup before his country fell apart.

Putin’s own ultra-nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin met troops on the frontline and found them in “a frenzied rage combined with despair.

“I didn’t expect everything to be so harsh and serious.”

In four-plus years of war, a paranoid Putin has never gone to the frontline to talk to ordinary soldiers – unlike his foe Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a chorus of gloom over the war, another Russian propagandist, war correspondent for Putin’s favourite newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Grigory Kubatyan, admitted Russia’s vast army was failing, and peace talks were now needed to end the conflict.

“The war must be won or ended to save lives,” he said.

“Over the past four years, we haven’t been able or didn’t want to win. So we’ll have to negotiate. It’s impossible to wage war indefinitely.

“Our men on the front lines are heroic. But they are human beings, and they need rest.”

This comes amid fury across Russia that Putin’s is poised to use April Fool’s Day to block Telegram, the country’s popular messaging app – vital on the frontline but also for businesses and regular communications.

“This is as mad as the alcohol ban which sealed Gorbachev’s fate,” one comment read.

Instead, Russians are being forced onto MAX – a surveillance tool app bristling with spyware, which is controlled by the FSB security service and, astonishingly, owned by a member of Putin’s family.

This follows the blocking of internet across Moscow and other cities and regions amid unspecified “security fears”, triggering claims of Kremlin fears over coup plots.

A woman in war-ravaged Belgorod today issued a warning that Putin was putting Russian lives at risk. A Telegram group warning of impending drone and missile strikes – giving residents less than a minute to take cover – no longer functions, she said.

She protested: “They’re [Putin’s regime] taking Telegram away from us, depriving us of these precious 30-40 seconds to save ourselves. Please bring Telegram back.”

A state media meme ridiculed the ban, imagining the equivalent in Roman times.

“Should we, in the fight for security in the legions, also abandon wax tablets and transmit orders and reports only orally from memory?”

With the world’s focus on the Gulf, Putin’s public appearances have been slashed by 24% in the past three months as Russian anger has grown to dangerous levels, amid his lowest approval ratings since the start of the war.

“Russian leader’s absence has been especially significant in recent weeks given an unusual wave of public discontent resulting from ongoing mobile internet shutdowns, the blocking of popular messaging app Telegram (which intensified in the middle of this month), and the mass slaughter of livestock in Siberia over fears of disease,” said political analyst Farida Rustamova.

“Putin’s reticence—and the unusual level of discontent this time—may end up becoming a toxic combination for the regime.”

Some observers are forecasting a coup – until now seen as unthinkable – perhaps from within the regime.

“The events of blocking Telegram and creating reasons for public discontent are deliberate and reminiscent of preparations for a state coup, a….revolution, or something similar,” warned commentator Evgeny Andrushchenko.

Lawyer Ilya Remeslo – a staunch backer of the invasion of Ukraine, and seen as linked to the security services – said the conflict had turned into an abject failure with up to two million casualties.

Putin must be “prosecuted as a war criminal and a thief”, he demanded, before being told he needed psychiatric treatment, a familiar Soviet punishment for dissidents.

Russian sociologist and political commentator Igor Eidman said Remeslo’s “mutiny” was a sign of a deep split inside the elite.

“This is a conspiracy by a significant portion of the Russian elite, who are interested in accepting Trump’s offer to freeze the war,” he said.

“This group is extremely dissatisfied with Putin’s effectively rejecting Trump’s extended hand.”

Eidman believes a group of insiders are “preparing to dump Putin”.

A video showing Putin coughing and spluttering while recording his greetings on International Women’s Day this month was a case of his own circle seeking to undermine him, he said.

Another war analyst Sergei Karnaukhov said: “ I feel sorry for us and for Russia as a whole.”