Vladimir Putin has been ill with cancer for a "long time" and will die "very fast", Ukraine's chief of defence intelligence has claimed in a rare interview.Kyrylo Budanov said sources close to Putin has confirmed that the 70-year-old leader was suffering from cancer.When a series of domestic Russian announcements by Putin late last year proved unfavourable with the population, former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger suggested his replacement could be what he described as “the chauvinistic, nationalistic, arguably fascistic right-wing” factions of the Kremlin.Explosions were recorded on December 5 at Russia’s Engels-2 and Dyagilevo airbases, roughly 450 miles from the Ukrainian border, destroying scores of Russian military equipment.The head of Russian analysis at the Danish Defence Intelligence Service - whose identity is so secret he was named only as Joakim - earlier said: “It wasn’t poor intelligence but Putin’s ideological convictions that led Russian soldiers to believe they would be greeted with flowers."