PUTIN'S own officers are believed to have handed over intelligence to Ukraine which allowed it to launch an attack that wiped out Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters.
The deadly missile strike in Sevastopol injured hundreds and killed 34 soldiers, including Admiral Viktor Sokolov, 61, Putin's hand picked commander of the now crippled Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The alleged betrayal from Putin's own soldiers came as Admiral Sokolov had been meeting with other commanders for a war-planning session.
Sokolov had been handpicked by Putin to restore the fleet’s pride after the loss of flagship Moskva last year to Ukrainian Neptune missiles.
Anti-Putin partisan group ATESH told the Kyiv Post they paid the soldiers who passed on the military intel leading to the deadly Black Sea strike as an "additional incentive".
ATESH said: "Delays in salary payments alone do not force the military armed forces of the Russian Federation to go against the Russian authorities."
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The partisan group said the naval officers who leaked intelligence to them believe tyrant Putin is “waging a criminal war and that it needs to stop".
The spokesperson said: "The financial reward only helps them to decide on cooperation with the ATESH movement, it serves as an additional incentive."
The Crimean partisan group refused to say how much the Russian officers were paid but disclosed “it was enough to cover the risks for the officers and their families".
On Friday, footage showed black smoke billowing from the building in Crimea, which tyrant Putin illegally annexed in 2014, following a missile attack.
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Moscow imposed a news blackout after the Friday strike, a move indicating that the consequences had been serious.
Also among the wounded in the Storm Shadow missile strike were Russian war commanders Colonel-General Alexander Romanchuk Chief of Staff and Lieutenant-General Oleg Tsekov.
A second strike was then launched on Saturday – with a clip showing the moment a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile hit the already-burning building in Sevastopol.
Intelligence from the partisan group was also key to the destruction of the Minsk large landing ship and damage to the Rostov-on-Don submarine earlier this month in Sevastopol.
Ukraine now claims that Russia suffered 62 “irreversible losses” when the Minsk was hit in the crippling early morning blitz.
Despite Russia having not acknowledged the partisan group, ATESH claimed: "The Russian military is well aware of the existence of the partisan movement and throw all their forces and means to suppress it and identify our agents.
“The growing resistance among the Crimeans confuses the Russians very much.”
And partisan groups are confident they will be able to carry out further subversive acts against Putin's forces.
They said: “We have ears and eyes both inside and outside, so we are the first to hear and see what is happening there."
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