An increasingly panicked Vladimir Putin is pulling all his fighter jets out of Crimea after Ukrainian special forces staged a series of daring attacks on Russian military bases deep in the occupied peninsula, NATO officials reportedly believe.

The secret document dated August 22 reported that Russia has already moved 10 of its most capable fighter planes – six Su-35S and four MiG-31BM jets – out of the territory it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and back to airbases in mainland Russia.

The remainder of Putin’s air force is expected to follow suit in the coming days, according to the report which was seen by Insider.

Recent weeks have seen a trio of notable attacks strike the Sevastopol headquarters of Russia’s famous Black Sea Fleet, an airbase in Saki – which resulted in the destruction of at least nine Russian jets and considerable damage to infrastructure – and an ammunition depot near Dzhankoi.