U.s. is handling it, cluster bombs is one issue, the uk doesn t support the u.s. sending cluster bombs to ukraine. so that s really setting up the scene going to the nato summit. they re discussing an issue which both men really care about, which is climate change. and it is all about celebrating the long-term relationship between the u.s. and uk, trying to solidify it. it is interesting to see how the crown is going to change a bit, of course, with a king, something we haven t seen in many decades. thank you so much, max foster. appreciate it. kate? thank you so much, sara. let s talk about all of this, put it together. joining us right now is kurt volker, former u.s. ambassador so nato and former u.s. special representative for ukraine negotiations. ambassador, good to see you again. thank you for coming in. let s talk, first, about what we were i was discussing with fred pleitgen coming out of russia. now, the kremlin saying that prigozhin met with putin for hours and it was j
A sign of weakness or a sign of strength that we re hearing this from the kremlin? well, i think what it shows is that putin actually was very concerned that he was in a much weaker position than he realized. and the fact that prigozhin could launch a rebellion like that, get as far as he did has actually shook putin a little bit. and this is why he wanted to try to re-establish control, bet prigozhin back on side, and then maybe see what he has to do to retain that support from the power sources in russia, the military, the intelligence services, to try to keep it together. and also, and fred highlighted something that is important in that statement, he was talking in the statement coming up from the kremlin, he talked about the potential of future use of the wagner group. because i was thinking back to our conversation, i think last week, it feels like a million years ago at this point, when you and i were talking about how this was unfolding, ambassador, and like everyone else
It only took place about five days after that mutiny happened. yevgeny prigozhin was able to go into the kremlin. now, some of the things that we re hearing from that meeting, which are coming from the kremlin, from dmitry peskov, the spokesman, are quite interesting. apparently vladimir putin came out and gave his assessment of what the russians call their special military operation, but also all the mutiny itself. and there was a little side sentence in what he said. he said he talked about possible future use of the wagner group and battlefield deployment. that could indicate that possibly wagner is back in the game. certainly that could be a really interesting development because there are so many things that are unclear. the kremcrkremlin itself says prigozhin was going to go to belarus. and then he wasn t actually in belarus, he was actually in st. petersburg, in russia. it seems as though for now it appears as though yevgeny prigozhin is still in russia,
But it is unclear how much control he could retain over wagner if any and not just wagner, of course, on the battlefield in ukraine, but all of its other assets like, for instance, the dealings he has in africa and in the middle east as well. a huge development potentially. yeah, and, fred, the russian defense ministry just published a video of a top general seen out in public for the first time since that rebellion. what do you see in this? what more can you tell us about it? reporter: yeah, that s the chief of the general staff of the russian military. he s basically the second in command after the defense minister and that also ties in possibly with prigozhin having been in the kremlin and that meeting now being made public. one of the things that was asked at that meeting, there were 35 commanders at the meeting. folks asked were there any people from the defense ministry there and the kremlin refused to answer that. one thing we know is that the heads of russia s defense
Emphasized the word now. and there i think everyone agrees that you don t bring ukraine into nato today when the war is going on. that would commit the u.s. and other forces to begin fighting russia as well. and we don t want to turn russia s war against ukraine into a nato war against russia. but we do need to send a very clear signal to vladimir putin that ukraine will become a member of nato. his effort to extinguish ukraine and to disrupt european security is going to fail. and that we are serious about protecting security in europe in the future and the only way to do that is by bringing ukraine into nato. so we need to send a very strong signal out of the summit that this is where this train is going. i wanted to ask you, because an invitation to nato membership doesn t mean automatic membership. we have seen the long road many countries have taken on that. what then is the hesitancy, if you sense it is hesitancy in biden s approach into this