run down into the war in ukraine. so, now there s been a de-escalation. there s been this partial resolution for the time being. i think everybody in russia vladimir putin go on television and say this guy is in the community. he has to be detained. they were putting out threats. he was going to be thrown in prison. just the fact that they even let prigozhin for the time being off here into belarus. that s not what putin told his own people he was going to do. so russians are feeling the war coming home into their internal politics in a way they haven t before. i think now we know that russia and its political stability is a part of the war in ukraine. as elementary as this may sound, ben, you sound very definitive in believing this is directed at putin. this is an attempt at putin s ouster. now, we are careful about the language used to describe this, right? we are not using the word coup. we re using the word military rebellion. armed rebellion. revolt. to some, people still unclea
than the kremlin? , i have to think that the kremlin and the russian district defense had some indication of what was going on this was in a crowded battle space, there s a lot of intelligence happening. i m sure that the ukrainian intelligence services had some idea of what was happening. as congressman gallego said this has been building for a while i think the u.s. intelligence committee in addition to congressman guy was good point that they don t want to be seen to be like playing in a russian area that the west is still behind some, uprising some rebellion we still don t know exactly what the endgame here was and you don t want to go out and narrate events when you actually don t know where those events are going. , now before the war, we knew russia was going to invade. we knew what we are looking at where it was leading. we might have seen all kinds of indication that they re about to make a play but i don t think that they likely understood exactly what the n state was. and s
or not and that does signal to people that russia s political future is a part of the war in ukraine. it s not just ukraine s future, it is vladimir putin s regime. it is an accidental issue for them just it is as for the ukrainian people. and that s the new world that we re in. the fact they are saying the world russia and change on the same substance is not something that s happened in a very long time. marcia ngassam, thank you for joining us is moving, ben rhodes i m going to ask you to stick around for the entire hour, up next, what about the warren? ukraine wagner mercenaries have been key to russia s fighting forces, what is putin doing now, we re going to go to kyiv, how can west respond we will speak to a member of the house armed services committee saying committee saying unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger.
how does it affect the war in ukraine where wagner forces played a key role and what happens to prigozhin and how long is he allowed to remain alive in exile? also, now that someone s broke in the steel, does anyone else want to try their hand at an armed rebellion? joining us now, ben rhodes former deputy national security adviser to president obama obama, and an msnbc contributor, masha gessen, the staff writer of surviving autocracy. ben, what just happened here? it has been a whirlwind weekend . it s very hard for someone like me and a lot of people to make sense of exactly where we are. well, we are in new and uncharted territory. the reality, alex, this has kind of been building for months. the wagner forces, up to 25,000 people under arms. they were on the frontlines in the ukrainian city of bakhmut. they were grinding it out day after day in the most brutal fighting of the war.
today, ukrainian authorities reported five dead in more than a dozen injured and overnight airstrikes on kyiv. emergency workers there spent the day sifting through the rubble to search for people who might be trapped beneath the debris. kyiv was one of several ukrainian cities hit by airstrikes yesterday. ukrainian officials say russian missiles also targeted dnipro, kharkiv and kherson. wounding and killing people on the ground. ukraine is now entering its 17th month of war. battling to maintain independence from russian invaders. while the country continues to fight with an onslaught of russian attacks, ukraine is pressing forward to retake its land. ukraine s deputy defense minister says ukrainian troops launched a multi foreign offensive and the russian controlled donetsk region, including around bakhmut which was captured last month. the longest battle of the war today to buy the wagner group. the same group behind this weekend s armed rebellion, it devastated the city of bakhmut