tonight, we begin with breaking news out of russia. a major twist in that country s war against ukraine. vladimir putin forced to confront a rebellion within his own borders. just hours ago, we learned that if guinea prigozhin, the owner and the head of the wagner group and mercenary force that has been fighting alongside the russian military and ukraine, halted his advance on to the country s capital. that announcement came shortly after prigozhin claimed he and his fighters had captured the city of rostov-on-don home to the russian military headquarters for its war in ukraine. since their invasion last year, moscow has become dependent on the back in a group to support the war efforts as they re dwindling russian forces struggle to make significant gains inside ukrainian territory. in december, the u.s. said it believed the group had an estimated 50,000 personnel inside ukraine alone. it made up of about 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts that were recruited from inside
a dramatic turn. in a series of angry videos, prigozhin claimed the russian military carried out a strike against his fighters and in response he called for this rebellion with the goal of ousting shoigu. russia s main security agency responded calling for rogozin s arrest. earlier this morning, putin condemned prigozhin s actions during an address to the nation describing it as a, quote, stab in the back against our nation and our country. tensions grew high in moscow with city officials there bracing for this offensive by the wagner unit. according to prigozhin, his forces were within 200 kilometers of the capital when an agreement was reached. belarus claims that president lukashenko brokered a deal with a vector group to stop the advance. putin s spokesperson dimitri peskov, said the criminal case against prigozhin has now been dropped and that he is actually agreed to go into exile in