A highly placed Kremlin official has secretly approached the West to help end the Ukraine invasion, a media report said.
The secret member of Vladimir Putin's elite is said to have revealed the Kremlin is in panic and desperate for the bloody war to end, Daily Mirror reported.
Astonishing claims about the move were made in a report circulated to Western intelligence agencies.
It is believed senior officers and officials close to Putin are alarmed by biting Western sanctions and the failing economy caused by war.
Some Kremlin figures are also concerned about the increasingly alarming risks being taken such as fighting at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Daily Mirror reported.
The approach is likely to have been made to CIA contacts or Western diplomats, behind Putin's back.
Also Read | Ukraine is bankrupt: Moscow
The leaked "situation report" is being taken seriously by intelligence agencies.
The document says: "A representative of Putin's inner-circle sent a signal to the West about the desire to negotiate. The mood of the Kremlin elite is panic", Daily Mirror reported.
The amazing claims goes on to label the unnamed Kremlin insider as "one of the pillars of the regime".
The insider would be in extreme danger, along with their family, if they were named and Putin has already had several purges, firing military commanders and senior spies.
Some have even disappeared or fallen mysteriously ill.
A senior Ukrainian diplomatic source told the Daily Mirror: "If someone close to Putin has made overtures already it would not come as a surprise."
