Is Vladimir feeling the pressure? Putin shows his stress over the Ukraine war by wringing his hands at a meeting with disgraced officials after Zelensky's troops occupied Russian soil

Vladimir Putin is feeling the stress of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, wringing his hands at a meeting with his top officials after Volodymyr Zelensky's troops fought back and launched a counterattack into the country.

The 71-year-old dictator discussed the crisis he is facing due to Ukraine's dramatic invasion of the border areas of the Kursk region at a Security Council meeting.

His public hand-wringing and fidgeting came when he learned earlier this week that Russia had lost territory to Kiev's troops and – at the time – more than two dozen settlements, today the number is far higher.

Fighting continues in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been stationed since August 6 to divert the Kremlin's military focus from the front line in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces said they had captured the town of Sudzha, ten kilometers from the border, and blown off the face of a statue of Vladimir Lenin.

Ukrainian soldiers have invaded Russia to divert Putin's attention from the front line (pictured: troops resting on the Russian border).

Once loyal Putin propagandists like filmmaker Karen Shakhnazarov are beginning to question the wisdom of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops have advanced into Russia's Kursk region (seen here in the town of Sudzha, the largest city to fall under Ukrainian control so far).

Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine and launches a missile attack on the Ukrainian border town of Sumy

With a pre-war population of about 5,000, it is the largest city to fall into the hands of Ukrainian troops since the beginning of the invasion.

In the video of a cabinet meeting published by the Kremlin, Putin's Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov told him that 2,000 people and 840 nurses were missing in the territories handed over to Ukraine.

He also received the grim news that a dozen civilians had been killed and 121 injured, including ten children.

When the news was told to him, Putin was seen looking serious, nervously fiddling with a pen and absentmindedly rubbing his wrists. At times he seemed to grimace when the worst information was given to him.

Experts interpret such nonverbal gestures as an expression of fear, stress or indecision.

They may show that the dictator is facing an inner conflict and lacking confidence, or is feeling fear or insecurity. Perhaps he is trying to calm himself down.

Putin is often seen holding the table tightly with one hand, which could also be an expression of tension and fear. In this respect, hand-wringing is unusual for the Russian head of state.

During the meeting, Putin showed some strange facial expressions, several times he seemed to bite his lip and appeared annoyed by the statements of his officials.

The meeting took place on Monday as Putin grappled with the fallout from his nearly two-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine, which he claimed was designed to ensure Russia's security.

Instead, he has made little progress in his goal of conquering more Ukrainian territory and has lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in his war.

Now he has also started losing Russian territory, as Ukraine has discovered the weak point in his defenses. In the eyes of ordinary people in his country, he is now a loser.

And once loyal propaganda experts began to question Putin.

Karen Shakhnazarov, head of Mosfilm studios and famous Russian film director, said on state television: “If there are further mistakes like [the strike into Russia by Ukraine]we can lose [the war].

“And that is not defeatism. And it is not alarmism.

“It’s simply about an absolute understanding of the price that we and our homeland have to pay.”

A statue of Vladimir Lenin was badly damaged in firefights between Ukrainian and Russian troops in Sudzha.

A border crossing near Sudzha was destroyed in fighting when Kyiv returned to Russia earlier this month.

Russian attacks in Ukraine continue despite border conflicts (pictured: residents of Sumy inspect the damage from Putin's missile attack).

In addition, Ukrainian forces captured numerous Russian soldiers as they advanced through the region.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked soldiers and commanders for capturing Russian servicemen and said the country's “exchange fund”, which will be used to negotiate the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war, would be replenished.

“I thank all our soldiers and commanders who are capturing Russian military personnel and thus advancing the release of our warriors and civilians held by Russia,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X.

In retaliation, Russian troops at the front are said to have engaged in barbaric practices. For example, one of the soldiers is said to have shown the severed head of a Ukrainian soldier that was impaled on a pole.

Kyiv has reported the video, shared via a pro-Russian Telegram account, to the United Nations and accused those responsible of a war crime.

Meanwhile, the eccentric leader of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, released a video of himself driving a Tesla Cybertruck with some sort of machine gun mounted on the roof on Saturday.

Kadyrov, known for his extravagant publicity stunts, praised both the car and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on the messaging app Telegram, calling him the “strongest genius of modern times” and inviting Musk to Chechnya.

“We … expect your future products that will help us complete the special military operation,” Kadyrov wrote, using the official term Russia uses to describe its war in Ukraine. Tesla did not immediately comment.

In addition, Russia continued its attack on Ukraine, despite the beleaguered country's attempts to divert Putin's attention from the former Soviet state.

A Russian missile has sparked a fire in the city of Sumy, injuring two people and damaging cars and surrounding buildings, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. An Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb were involved in the impact.

The Ukrainian Air Force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.