Vladimir Putin has “Miscalculated” the Ukrainian people’s “Will to fight,” author and Russian-born US intelligence expert Rebekah Koffler says as she breaks down the president’s “masterplan”.

“With Putin being a former KGB officer, this is an intelligence failure,” she told Sky News Australia.

“But, overall, he did not miscalculate in terms of the west response.

“He has been studying, and his military and his intelligence services, they have been studying the way that the west, the US and NATO, conduct wars.

“He feels very, very confident that he is going to achieve his strategic goals which is the reversal of the outcome of the Cold War.”

Ms Koffler said the Russian president’s next step would be to resubjugate “every single post-Soviet state beyond Ukraine” and pointed to Moldova, Belarus and Georgia.

“Only the Baltics are safe at this point by virtue of them being NATO members,” she said.

“This is his end game, and these are his next steps.”