hi there, everyone. i m nicole wallace, thanks for being here with us. we ve got a lot of places you get your news today, we re glad you re joining us. four pm in the east, it s 11 pm in moscow. we re following breaking news this hour, with the latest on the revolt unfolding in russia. and we see news is confirming, yevgeny prigozhin is the head of the wagner group, which is a private mercenary army in russia, that s done a lot of the fighting in the war in ukraine. he has called for his moscow bound convoy to stand down for now. that s only after advancing to within 120 miles of the city of moscow. in the biggest threat to russian president vladimir putin s grip on power that we ve ever seen. prigozhin sent a voice note, signaling that the forces would stand down, saying the group understands, quote, the responsibility for spilling russian blood on one of the sides. we are turning back our convoys, and going back to field camps, according to the plan. this comes just hours a
and the consequences for the rest of the world. kremlin spokesperson says, the leader of the wagner mercenary group, yevgeny prigozhin, will not face charges for actions russian president vladimir putin described as treason just hours ago. spokesperson also saying, prigozhin will head to neighboring belarus, with wagner soldiers would not be prosecuted. this comes after prigozhin ordered his forces to turn back, return to their bases, abandoning an armed rebellion that had them heading toward moscow. we are looking at new video into us taken from the city of rostov near the ukrainian border. as all these new developments come in and we get these new images, the question remains, how do we get here this fast? the wagner group was what russia calls a, quote, private military company. over the u.s. calls the group a proxy force that had been fighting on russia s behalf in ukraine. on friday, prigozhin accused russia s defense minister, ordering a rocket strike on wagner s camps
as we look ahead to the next couple of weeks, this nato summit that is expected to take place in lithuania, that the president will attend, was already extremely interesting and relevant. now, even more so, of course, with all of this going on, nicole? ben rhodes, viewers of our networks are so well stated all these issues, i ll admit, i made some calls to understand how central the wagner group and paid mercenaries have been to vladimir putin s war effort in ukraine. the answer was universally sizable. they were in the league in bakhmut. some theory among military experts that some of what precocious was a tipping point may have been the brutality that he saw the troops endure there, the way disorders and others were treated. my question for you, ben rhodes, can putin prevail in ukraine without the wagner group another mercenaries? well, they weren t prevailing even with the wagner group. if they lose a bunch of that
joint chairman of the joint chiefs, general mark milley, canceled a trip he was supposed to take to the middle east as well. every aspect of the administration really taking the last 24 hours to take stock of what s happened here. in terms of these latest developments about the wagner group retreating, the white house does not want to comment on any of that. u.s. officials are still assessing this. they re being very careful in their public posture. the vice president was actually traveling today in charlotte, north carolina, to give a major speech on the dobbs anniversary. also asked about this a couple of times. but decided not to weigh in. you can imagine, nicole, from your experience, knowing exactly how this goes. just because we re not seeing the president on camera at camp david or anything like that, doesn t mean he s not intensely working the phones. he did speak to the leaders of france, germany and the uk earlier. in a very short readout, the white house simply said, they ta
city of rostov-on-don. russia s military headquarters, in its war against ukraine. it appeared that wagner forces were set to wage an armed rebellion against the kremlin. citing the deaths of thousands of its fighters in ukraine under what they call, quote, false pretenses. it s a move putin described as treason. the promise to crush what he called the armed mutiny. this is important to note, the wagner group has been critical in russia s ability to wage war in ukraine. they have backed up russia s defense ministry. the white house has been monitoring all of the events in russia all day long. president joe biden and vice president kamala harris have been continually briefed by the national security team. president biden speaking earlier today by phone with the leaders of france, germany and the uk. before nato leaders all reiterating their support for ukraine, according to the white house. let me bring into our coverage our team of reporters, experts and analysts here to discuss all of