john brennan, thank you so much for being part of our special coverage. really grateful. missy, please stick around a little bit longer with us. there s much more news ahead in the hour. on the revolt against vladimir putin s military. it seems to be de-escalating for now, an about face from the wagner group. as director biden just said, technically speaking, a hot mess for vladimir putin. don t go anywhere, that s next.
wagner threats, then we can detain the nice man and then we will kill him in the most appropriate time and manner. jason, how do you think pentagon leaders are assessing this moment for the war in ukraine? well, i think a general mccaffrey make some great points on the forces that have been in disposition on the defensive lines in ukraine. they come from the book of the russian army, the armor, the artillery, the air. they ve dug in and created some very defensible space. so the prospect for the ukrainian forces, though emotionally and spiritually if you will has maybe buoyed a bit from this internal warfare, but on the ground were still in the same position. managing to mount a capable offense that can penetrate a well dug in defense of combined arms is extremely difficult,
1.4 million. so, i think wagner group, prigozhin, thought he could get them to flip to him. on the face of it, it didn t make any sense. this guy is a criminal, the leadership of the wagner group tends to be motivated by greed. they get the steal, gold diamonds, oil in africa and elsewhere in the world. it s a sort of shaky proposition. i wouldn t want to overstate the importance of the wagner group, the russian combat effort in ukraine. the air force, the navy, the bulk of are the most important branch of the russian army, the book of the armor troops are all russian army. not wagner group. the re-about 25,000 people when they deserted, they got cut up and tortured to death. they had huge, maybe 30,000
wagner, wagner, there were people taking selfies with his masked gunman in the streets. prigozhin has cultivated something of this kind of folk hero image in russia. he s presented himself as the man who speaks the unvarnished truth, speaking directly through his own posts on telegram. compared to these kind of stiff bureaucrats who appear on behalf of the russian defense ministry. and i think one of the reasons that they want to see him at minimum going to belarus and not sitting in russia, is there has been chatter that prigozhin has ambitions to be the leader of russia, to replace vladimir putin. that is not something that he said over the course of this rebellion, but if you re vladimir putin, you are not someone who tolerates rivals. this is not somebody you want hanging around inside the territory of russia. that s why i ask. in the region, the iconic wartime leader is zelenskyy, right? walking around and his
ended this rebellion. as you said, prigozhin is agreeing to go into some form of exile in belarus. in return for the criminal case against him being dropped. the kremlin is also saying it is prepared to give amnesty to his wagner mercenaries who took part in this rebellion. it is saying that those who did not take part will be allowed to join the regular russian military. many, many more questions than answers at this point. nicole, you asked me last hour, did prigozhin gets anything, especially in terms of his demands, that russia senior military leaders, the defense minister, garrison of the general in charge, be removed from their posts? the kremlin is saying they are not aware at this point of any changes in russia s senior military leadership. so it appears that they have not made concessions to prigozhin at this point. and nicole again, it is early hours. there is a lot of fog of war