Vladimir Putin is facing relentless and brutal mockery over his weary and haunted appearance as health fears around the Russian dictator soar. Fearing a coup or assassination by Ukraine, he was branded a “deeply frightened, aging dictator” over his ‘Victory Day’ showpiece in Moscow on Saturday by his Russian foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Ukrainian commentator Anton Gerashchenko pointed to one unflattering image of the 73-year-old ex-spy and his swollen cheeks, posting: “The face of a ‘victor’ and the leader of a ‘superpower’. It seems sanctions have even reached Putin’s Botox”. He had a lopsided pillow face, lumpy filler, mismatched cheeks, and a melting wax face, according to observers. Monitoring group Crimean Wind said: “History shows that many dictators visibly aged before the fall of their regime or their death. Scientists link this to chronic stress, paranoid fear of losing power, and isolation, which accelerate the body’s aging.” Putin foe Leonid Nevzlin saw the “shrinking” parade with no military hardware for the first time in almost two decades as symbolic of Putin’s loosening grip.

He has created “a state in which the main ritual is contracted around one aging man, shrinking together with his capacities.

“The regime is structured so that the question of its future has turned into the question of one old man’s health.

“Not about elections, not about political course, not about a split in the elites.

“About a cardiogram, about the appearance of decrepit hands.

“These are the only places where change is still possible in the country. For this body, like any other, has a deadline.”

The strained, sorrowful faces of Putin’s entourage periodically appeared on camera. “In general, no enthusiasm, no celebration.”

Never before have security operatives hovered around Putin so closely, he said.

“You can search for comparison with parades of previous years.

“Security is always there, that’s protocol, but there has never been such hovering.

“Either Putin himself is afraid, or he’s being wound up and intimidated this way — which causes him to become fearful and paranoid.”

He appears “alone and isolated” inside his security bubble.

This came as the toll in the past month has seen Putin lose 7,480 personnel – killed, wounded, and captured – over the first week of May.

This amounts to one loss every 80 seconds.