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
some amount of time in belarus and have this pirate empire around the world. but we don t exactly know what the terms of this deal we re. and there were quite surprising. a few hours ago, i and journalists around the world we re looking at flight schedules thinking, how do we get to the region? how do we get there as soon as possible? because back near was on the move. they were heading up the m4 highway on their way to moscow. they were within a few hundred yards of moscow. troops were taking the streets of the russian capital locking it down. and it looked like we could have a battle for control of the city. something that hasn t taken place in russia really since the napoleon tried to invade the country. so it seemed very serious. and there was this surprise, mysterious announcement brokered allegedly by the president of belarus who is a close ally of vladimir putin.
to be. we recently focused on the central african republic where the buckner group is more or less in charge. they control the government, they provide the body guarding services for the president himself. i interviewed the president, you have to go through wagner in order to get to him. wagner patrol the streets. so he has something like a pirate empire around the world. but it was his operations in ukraine, fighting this war alongside the russian military that caused so much controversy. his operations overseas, these moneymaking operations, it s unclear if he s going to be able to continue to carry them out. no mention of them so far. so the assumption is, as long as he leaves the battlefield, as long as he stops having an open fight with members of the russian military establishment, he will be allowed to live for