inside eastern ukraine where the war is playing out. horrors striking a city center as a top russian investigative reporter has new details for us about the phone calls leading up to the insurrection against putin. that reporter is my guest. and my full explosive interview with the ukrainian foreign minister, why he thinks the threat to putin is far from over, and his fears of an attack on europe s largest nuclear power plant. plus, a wagner commander speaks out to cnn about yevgeny prigozhin s bold coup attempt and what s next for the man who humiliated vladimir putin. let s go outfront. and good evening, i m erin burnett. welcome to a special edition of outfront. we are live tonight in eastern ukraine in the city of dnipro, a city on the road to the front lines of putin s war. behind me, you see blackness. but there is a city behind me of nearly 1 million people. it is just completely dark. after curfew completely dark. the street lights behind me are all shut off
for now, many who dare to defy putin paid a heavy price. a fierce kremlin critic was once one of russia s promising opposition leaders. jailed several times for speaking out against putin s government. in 2015, on a friday night, just steps away from the kremlin, he was shot and killed. a dissident voice silenced. five chechen men were found guilty. oppose mr. putin s rule, threaten his establishment, and life can turn into one behind bars. once the wealthiest man in russia, a former oil tycoon, crossed the line when he began to promote reform and accused him of corruption. he was charged with tax fraud, a charge he says was politically motivated. putin, then the prime minister, was asked about the case. he replied, a thief should be in prison. the maximum prison sentence was given to the critic. he spent years behind bars.