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
because of an insurrection led by the leader of the wagner mercenaries that ended nearly as soon as it started. an apparent clash between wagner and russian troops which was followed by a fire at that oil refinery you see on your screen there. under the deal done, the kremlin says wagner troops will not face any legal action, but they ll sign new contracts with russia s defense ministry while moscow will drop its charges against prig prigozhin, who will go to belarus. wagner s leader says he agreed to that in order to avoid bloodshed. translator: therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan. the kremlin says it doesn t know where prigozhin is right now. what you see there is video of people cheering as he left ross stor-on-don where his troops seized military facilities on saturday. officials now tell c
good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, i m katy tur here from new york. and i m chris jansing with special coverage on what is happening inside russia. for the first time, we are still waiting to hear from vladimir putin. now, we haven t heard anything since his former ally and the head of the ruthless mercenary wagner group attempt add revolt, and this new video released by russia, is it new or just something put out by the kremlin? who knows when it was taped. we can t say. and where is the man responsible for the dramatic weekend events, yevgeny prigozhin. right now we still don t know and he hasn t been seen since saturday when he decided to turn his forces back after marching toward the kremlin. and seemingly agreed to live in exile in belarus. so now russia, a country armed with more nuclear weapons than any other nation led by a man desperate to proclaim the old soviet union glory is at a crossroads. and while the world watches, ukraine is acting. ukrainian forces
services in the world, is fb intelligence that keeps a close eye on what s happening in russia. he was taken by surprise here. there s no other way to take this. they were putting dumpsters in the middle of highways. he did not know this was coming, which was pretty shocking. prigozhin wouldn t, i think by most accounts, be a much better leader than vladimir putin if he were to take charge or somebody like him. again, there s the largest nuclear stockpile in the world that russia is in control of. are you concerned about instability when it comes to that, those nuclear codes, and wherever they are over there falling into even worse hands? sure. you know, we have to be mindful of it. we have to be very careful of it. there are nuclear arsenals around the world that i m concerned about. it s not just in russia either. we always have to keep a close eye on, that and we do. our intelligence services do keep a very close eye on it. we have to be looking at what
putin and getting through to him may not be the best way to achieve his goals. so i would take that with a grain of salt. but i would think that prigozhin is fed up with the role that he feels he was forced to play in that war with ukraine. he didn t get enough support. he was wielding putin s troops. he wheels, and he claims, accurately, that his mercenary forces have taken some of the hardest battles without proper backup from the ministry of defense. and also, he feels, also correctly, that a couple of weeks ago when he was in the public debate with the ministry of defense, the presidential administration allowed the ministry of defense to prevail. and basically the defense ministry was moving in on prigozhin s mercenary force and planning to take over, to take up a hunt control of the ministry. which is something prigozhin wouldn t allow. so it s possible that an