emphasizing the west had nothing to do with the russian revolt. matthew chance is inside russia tonight amid this seismic shift. he s there. reporter: this is the last time we saw the wagner leader, departing the russian city he had essentially taken over on the weekend, amid cheers from supporters. [ cheers and applause ]. reporter: now yevgeny prigozhin is speaking out for the first time since agreeing to call off the armed rebellion that shook the correkremlin to core n. an 1minute recording, prigozhin denies aiming to challenge the russian president. translator: the purpose of the march was to prevent the destruction of wagner and the prosecution of those who made a huge number of mistakes in the course of the special military operation due to their unprofessional actions. society demanded this, and all the soldiers who saw us supported us. reporter: on russian state television damage control is already in full swing after a weekend of mayhem. prigozhin s armed re
the lead starts right now. a city center in eastern ukraine rocked by a missile strike. why this target and why now. cnn is live on the scene. plus contrasting claims. what persuaded prigozhin, the wagner boss to stop his apparent revolt in russia. the leader in belarus has his version. and while vladimir putin puts his own spin on what went down. erin burnett is leading or coverage tonight in eastern ukraine into and donald trump lashing out after a cnn exclusive audio of the president talking about classified documents. welcome to the lead, everyone. i m bianna golodryga in for jake tapper. we start with the world lead and breaking news from eastern ukraine. at least two massive russian strikes in the kramatorsk region. one where three people were killed including a child. an eyewitness tells cnn s team on the ground they ve seen up to a dozen people pulled from the rubble after days of turmoil inside of russia. following an aetempted armed rebel group led by prig
dmytro kuleba, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. i think we have to begin with the military situation. details are limited, but would you accept that right now the ukrainian counteroffensive has not succeeded in punching a significant hole in russia s defensive line in your country? we are moving forward. that s the most important thing. when we speak with our generals and with independent experts, they all say that in the counter offensive, the most important thing is to keep moving forward, whatever the pace is. i wish we broke all the lines by now and reached the sea of azov, but we re not stopping. and you have to take into account that for nine months russia was literally digging into the land, into the soil, reinforcing its trenches with concrete and steel, and mining virtually every square metre. in some areas, our soldiers are moving only 200 or 300 metres per day, crawling. at terrible cost, too. this is a war. and the difference between now and the russians is that we
dmytro kuleba, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. i think we have to begin with the military situation. details are limited, but would you accept that right now the ukrainian counteroffensive has not succeeded in punching a significant hole in russia s defensive line in your country? we are moving forward. that s the most important thing. when we speak with our generals and with independent experts, they all say that in the counter offensive, the most important thing is to keep moving forward, whatever the pace is. i wish we broke all the lines by now and reached the sea of azov, but we re not stopping. and you have to take into account that for nine months russia was literally digging into the land, into the soil, reinforcing its trenches with concrete and steel, and mining virtually every square metre. in some areas, our soldiers are moving only 200 or 300 metres per day, crawling. at terrible cost, too. this is a war. and the difference between now and the russians is that we
from the u.s. on the tragedy. we ll be right back. we ll be right back. hey, everyone. welcome to msnbc special coverage of the rebellion in russia. i am ayman mohyeldin in new york. more than 24 hours after a russian mercenary chief ordered his forces to end the revolt and retweet from their march toward moscow, many questions still remain about vladimir putin s grip on power, about the future of the war in ukraine, and about the impact of this crisis on stability across that region, as well as elsewhere around the world. here is what we know at this hour. russian mercenaries in the wagner group have withdrawn from the russian cities on the orders of its chief, yevgeny prigozhin, who declared an end to his rebellion yesterday. now, according to russian state media, prigozhin meanwhile, now headed to belarus, whose president, alexander lukashenko, helped negotiate that de-escalation. as for vladimir putin and the ongoing war in ukraine, the russian leader expressed co