Former CIA chief reveals next country on Vladimir Putin's hit list after Ukraine

A former CIA chief has warned that will extend his bloody campaign further inside Europe if he was allowed to claim victory in - having set his sights on one key nation.

David Petraeus, who chaired the agency between 2011 and 2012 during the administration, has warned the despot would march west into Europe's Baltic states. Putin is reportedly set to launch a devastating summer offensive on in the coming weeks, having recently stepped up both drone and missile attacks in a bid to sap the country's morale. Now, Mr Petraeus said, he is looking to claim the entire country for himself before moving on to a nation that has featured frequently in his speeches.

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Speaking at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London this week, Mr Petraeus said seeks to remove Zelensky and replace him with a pro-Russian puppet.

He said the Kremlin wants to "install a puppet leader and to control all of Ukraine". He went on to add that, once this objective is accomplished, Putin would move on to "one of the Baltic states". He added: "Once that's done, you are going to see them focus on one of the Baltic states."

Mr Petraeus specifically warned that Russian neighbour Lithuania would be next on the list, saying: "Lithuania has featured prominently in his speeches and we should have listened a lot more."

Long before the war in Ukraine began in 2022, Putin had frequently insisted the country was a part of Russia, and that Ukrainians and Russians were "one people". In 2020 he said: "Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities. Ancient Rus’ is our common source and we cannot live without each other.”

Kremlin-backed organisations have made similar claims about Lithuania. Russian top foreign-policy institute MGIMO published a 400-page history of the country claiming it was established solely as a proxy for Polish terrorism.

The book, which comes with a written foreward by Putin's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, adds that the country's exit from the crumbling USSR in 1991 was fraudulent and undemocratic. Lithuanian officials are aware of Russia's open hostility to the country, having last month unveiled an evacuation plan for its capital, Vilnius, in the event of an invasion.

The national government has also invested in updating its border defences, especially at a critical border choke point known as the Suwałki Gap.

The point has long been seen as one of the likeliest staging areas for a Russian attack on Lithuania, with Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Tomas Godliauskas telling POLITICO the fortifications are "critical to us from a security and defense perspective". Mr Godliauskas added: "They’ve always been part of our civil-military planning as key ground routes for allied support during a crisis."