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Vladimir Putin has ditched his £7,000 bespoke Italian suits for a military uniform in an attempt to present himself as a wartime leader and align with the success of Russian forces.

The Russian president is seen more often in hand-stitched Brioni jackets – as seen during a talk in Moscow last year – rather than in combat gear.

Keir Giles, a leading analyst on European defence and Russia at Chatham House in London, said his costume change is no accident but a ‘deliberate fashion choice’.

With the army claiming significant advances in Russia’s western region of Kursk, the president is eager to associate himself with their success.

Keir told Metro: ‘Putin’s fashion choices are, of course, deliberate, and it is a choice which might have been expected to achieve broad excitement in Western media, and it absolutely has done so.

‘But the underlying message is probably a very straightforward one – Putin probably thinks that the military is about to achieve something of which it can be proud.

‘Therefore he wants to be associated with it. It may be as simple and as straightforward as tagging on to the success of the army in ejecting the Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, if that, in fact, is imminent…’

Earlier this morning, Russian forces retook control of Sudzha, a major town in Russia’s western Kursk region, from Ukrainian troops, according to the ministry of defence.

Troops had also recaptured two other villages, Melovoi and Podol, it has been claimed.

The recapture of Sudzha is a significant gain for Russia as it battles to eject Ukrainian forces from their foothold in Kursk, which they have been clinging to since last August.

Putin, dressed in his military uniform, visited his army in Kursk yesterday and ordered them to press ahead and retake the rest of the Ukrainian-held territory.

Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) expert in Russian domestic politics, Emily Ferris, described the president’s clothing as a show of strength to the Russian people that ‘the war is not over until Russia says so’.

She told Metro: ‘It is a move clearly designed to signal the military strength, as US negotiators arrive in Moscow today.

‘Putin rarely visits the frontline and is very rarely in fatigues, unlike Zelensky who had adopted the uniform as a sign that Ukraine remains at war.

‘The audience is twofold – to the American negotiators, Putin’s choice and his words to the soldiers do not suggest the Russian position on the war to be softening.

‘Certainly, restoring Russia’s southern border and pushing further into Ukraine is a priority, as there is a risk that any ceasefire agreement would cement the conflict along its current lines.’

This comes as Donald Trump warned that he could hurt Russia’s economy if it did not agree on a 30-day ceasefire proposed in talks in Saudi Arabia.

The US president said: ‘I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.’

Keir stressed that is only when the military situation is ‘disadvantageous’ for Russia that it makes sense for it to agree to a ceasefire.

He added: ‘There is no reason for Russia to agree to a ceasefire. If Russia’s military commanders feel that the advantage is going their way, and they want to press home and make use of whatever momentum they have achieved.’

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Former FIFA referee Christina Unkel fears UEFA could be going down a ‘slippery slope’ if they were to issue definitive proof that they were right to disallow Julian Alvarez’s penalty against Real Madrid last night.

The defending champions progressed to the quarter finals, where they will face Arsenal, after a hugely controversial night at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.

Conor Gallagher scored the only goal of the evening in the opening minute which was enough to send the match to a penalty shootout after a goalless period of extra time.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side held their nerve in a tense shootout but they enjoyed a huge slice of luck when Alvarez’s effort was ruled out after it was determined by semi-automated technology.

Unlike when the system is used to determine offsides in a matter of seconds, UEFA chose not to issue an image that definitely proved Alvarez had made contact with the ball twice.

Brazilian media did release footage that appeared to offer conclusive proof, but that still wasn’t enough for many fans to conclude that the correct decision had been made.

Asked why the European governing body were so reluctant to put defintiive images into the public domain, Unkel told CBS Sport: ‘There’s going to be these kinds of situations and I always kind of laugh because laws are changed and impacted when things happen in UEFA competition and when things happen in Premier League.

‘In this kind of situation as a decision maker as to what kind of information they put out, what kind of data and support, you’re kind of dancing around a slippery slope situation.

‘If you put out information saying here are the angles they’ve decided on, here are the calibration levels, here’s where the kick-point was indicated by the semi-automated technology, this is why the referee makes the decision on X, Y and Z then you get into the slippery slope argument.

‘If everyone disagrees on an offside situation with a toenail they will demand for that communication and transparency and clarity.

‘That’s not helpful when you’ve got people saying we want to know the answers, everyone asks why can’t they explain it on the microphone.

Unkel did concede that on this occasion, given the magnitude of the situation, that it would have been helpful for fans to have been given more information.

She added: ‘I wish it was a bit more demonstrative, even though it’s a factual situation that the referee, because of the gravity and significance, was a little bit more demonstrative to show that it was a VAR overturning and a cancellation of the decision.

‘It’s going to be difficult and UEFA is very, very clean in what they do. They may determine it’s too much of a slippery slope to show those types of calibration without saying you guys created the system, you need to trust the system, this is what happened.’