Since Putin gave the go-ahead for the invasion a month ago, Ukraine has come under heavy fire from tanks and missiles as Russian forces continue their advances on major cities. Ukraine has fought back with extreme courage and bravery, with Russian forces beaten back in several areas as rival troops fight valiantly to regain key areas of territory. But on Friday, Matilda Bogner, Head of Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said at least 1,035 civilians have been killed and at some 1,650 injured sine the Russian invasion started on February 24.
Despite being crippled by punishing economic sanctions from across the world, Putin is showing no signs of taking his foot off the accelerator during the invasion of Ukraine.
Now Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy expert and former aide to Margaret Thatcher, has outlined the chilling moves Putin could be preparing next for Ukraine – even establishing concentration camps in the country.
He told Express.co.uk: “Putin will follow the invasion with occupation and quite likely ethnic cleansing in Ukraine, as well as mass killing.
“We should be prepared for the possibility of Putin setting up concentration camps, and inflicting horrific, horrendous suffering on the Ukrainian people.
“He is capable of genocide – he doesn’t care at all about human life.
“We are looking at savagery and barbarism on an epic scale with Putin, so we cannot underestimate what is happening and what might happen.”
Mr Gardiner added: “Putin’s goal is to occupy the whole of Ukraine and completely submerge it under Russian control.
“He doesn’t care how many people will die, even if that is hundreds of thousands.
“What we saw in Srebrenica in the Balkans a few decades ago, this is what Putin is capable of on a much bigger scale.
“There is no end to the evil this monster is capable of.
“Putin and his regime have no intention of pulling back – they are going for the kill.”
Upon arriving at a trio of NATO, G7 and EU summits in Brussels on Thursday, Boris Johnson accused Russia of crossing a red line into barbarism in its war with Ukraine.
The Prime Minister also urged the West “tighten the vice” in sanctions to bring the brutal conflict to an end.
He said: “Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism.
“The harder our sanctions…the more we can do to help Ukraine…the faster this thing can be over.”
But in a bizarre attack against Mr Johnson on the same day, the Kremlin accused him of being the most active anti-Russian leader as the UK new sanctions and urged a targeting of Putin’s gold reserves.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the state-owned RIA news agency as saying: “As for Mr Johnson, we see him as the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian.
“It will lead to a foreign policy dead end.”
But Downing Street hit back, with Mr Johnson’s official spokesman insisting: “The Prime Minister is among the most active anti-Putin leaders.
“We have no issue with the Russian people and in fact we have seen many bravely protest – not least (jailed opposition leader) Alexei Navalny – against Putin’s regime and call on them to cease this war.”