VLADIMIR Putin could be plotting to exploit the crisis in the Middle East to launch an attack on Europe, a Ukrainian government insider has warned.

The alarm was raised today as Putin became the first global leader to engage with Iranian officials following US President Donald Trump’s recent barrage of attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Russia has cautioned that Trump’s actions have unleashed a “Pandora’s Box” with his weekend B-2 bomber assault—criticism coming from Putin, who himself has faced backlash for his unlawful military actions in Ukraine.

Nonetheless, a high-ranking Ukrainian insider cautioned that Putin might be eager to exploit the situation to his advantage while the Western world is focused on the Middle Eastern tensions.

The cunning tyrant may even attempt to mimic Ukraine’s elaborate Spiderweb operation that blitzed strategic targets inside Russia.

A Ukrainian source told The Sun: “The West should be prepared that the Spiderweb operation may be reconfigured and deployed by Russia as a hybrid attack on any Nato Eastern flank nation.

“That would be the major Article 5 test that the Alliance has not experienced yet.”

Humiliated Putin was left reeling after Ukraine’s spectacular raid that – after 18 months of planning – inflicted billions of pounds worth of damage, leaving his bomber fleet in tatters.

Daring agents smuggled drones and explosives deep inside the sprawling country before unleashing a coordinated assault on June 1.

More than 100 drones were hidden in trucks across Russia before being deployed to five air bases – thousands of kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

At least 41 of Putin’s prized aircraft were wrecked in the attack – including Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and Tu-160 bombers and A-50 spy planes.

Delivering such a decisive blow has left Ukraine’s enemy scrambling.

But a Ukrainian government insider has warned it would also have left Putin’s cronies eager to learn from the clandestine operation – and look to mimic it.

The source said it could spell disaster if Vlad uses it as a blueprint to launch an attack on a European country.

They told The Sun: “We have seen how quickly Russia managed to adapt and learn from Ukraine.

“It’s not only Nato states that are learning lessons from Ukraine, it’s the adversaries too.

“There was a time when Russia was two months behind Ukraine in its drone technology, now it is ahead with fibreoptic drones.

“Ukraine is catching up and trying to develop techniques to best tackle those.

“We have already seen Russian espionage and sabotage acts in Europe.

“We can now be almost 100 per cent sure that they have taken on the Spiderweb as an example of something they can mimic in, for example, one of the Baltic states.

“That’s where the attribution of the operation will be very hard to achieve, but the consequences could be quite significant both for the country/countries in question and for the unity of Nato.”

The insider believes conniving Putin could sign off an assault while world leaders grapple with the spiralling conflict in the Middle East.

With the Trump administration turning its sights to Israel and Iran, and security challenges in China, Europe has largely been left to fend for itself.

After more than a week of Israel and Iran trading blows, Trump unleashed bombs on three nuclear sites in Iran – with Tehran threatening to retaliate.

It comes as the EU’s top diplomat warned Moscow has a plan for long-term aggression against Europe.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas last week said Putin’s determination to throw huge sums of money at his military suggests he is scheming to use his armed forces elsewhere.

She pointed to the fact Russia is spending more on defence than the EU’s 27 nations combined.

Megalomanic Putin is set to invest more on defence than his nation’s heath care, education and social policy combined, Kallas said.

She warned lawmakers in Strasbourg, France: “This is a long-term plan for a long-term aggression. You don’t spend that much on military if you do not plan to use it.

“Europe is under attack and our continent sits in a world becoming more dangerous.”

Both Kallas and the Ukrainian source noted a series of acts of sabotage and cyberattacks – including Russian airspace violations and attacks on energy grids, pipelines and undersea cables.

The insider added: “Russia never misses out on devious and cunning techniques. Especially with the upcoming Nato summit.

‘UK must bolster defence or pay will blood of its people’, Penny Mordaunt warns

by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)

BRITAIN will pay with the blood of its people if more money isn’t spent to bolster the UK’s defence, Penny Mordaunt has warned.

The ex-defence secretary has urged the government to “wake up” and fund the UK’s security properly before it’s too late.

Former Navy reservist Mordaunt argued that Britain is “emboldening our enemies” if we fail to invest in other forms of deterrence.

She warned the consequences with be “incalculably grave” if the government does not open up the treasury purse.

Ms Mordaunt told The Sun: “I’m confident that if you prepare for war, you invest in it, you train for it, then conflicts don’t start.

“Because your foes know it is not worth them doing that. They’re going to lose.

“The consequences of retaliation against them are too great.”

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“During last year’s summit, China was conducting military exercises in Belarus, sending a clear signal.

“Russia may be distraught with the fact that one of its strongest allies in this war against Ukraine is getting bombarded, but at the same time, they may well use the opportunity of Europe being distracted and the US fully withdrawn to conduct a hybrid attack on Europe.”

Acts of sabotage have previously been pegged at attempts to undermine Europe’s support of Ukraine by military officials and experts.

But there are fears Russia could test Nato’s Article 5 security guarantee that pledges an attack on any of the allies would be met with a collective response.

And with no sign of a peace deal being thrashed out between Moscow and Kyiv despite international pleas after more than three years of war, an assault on the EU appears to loom closer.

Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND) Bruno Kahl last week warned against underestimating Russia’s threat to the West.

He told the Table Today podcast: “We are very certain, and we have intelligence evidence for this, that Ukraine is just a step on the path to the West.

“They want to catapult Nato back to the state it was in at the end of the 1990s. They want to kick America out of Europe, and they’ll use any means to achieve that.”

It comes as Nato heads of state are set to meet at a crunch two-day summit this week in The Hague – with setting a new target for allied defence spending the primary issue up for discussion.

Allied nations are expected to agree a new defence investment pledge and pour billions of dollars into elevating security-related spending.