prigozhin mercenary forces have pretty much taken over that every strategic town of rostov-on-don. i that s a very strategic part of this war. the russian mercenary groups have been launching offensive strikes in ukraine from there, so they ve been key to this battle. prigozhin says they have now taken that town completely. they are now firing eight shots, and what we re hearing now is that he s mercenary forces are moving north. possibly towards moscow, which is an incredibly significant development in what s happening in the last 24 hours, and the most curious challenge to the russian state in recent memory, now, prigozhin was saying that this wasn t a crew he was trying to get rid of the defense minister, shoigu, and the head of the armed forces, but this is a direct challenge to putin s authority when you re trying to remove his top military brass during a conflict with ukraine. what key right now, jonathan, is what happens over the coming hours. the loyalty of the rus
undoubtedly been weakened. prigozhin announced his paramilitary fighters would pull back to avoid bloodshed. the kremlin later announced war lord could leave for belarus allegedly without penalty for his mercenaries taking hold of the critical russian city of rostov-on-don. they were going to dismantle pmc wagner. we came out on the 23rd of june to march for justice. in this time we did not 3eu8 a single drop of blood on of our fighters. now the moment has come when blood may still spill, that that s why understanding the responsibility, we are turning back our convoys and going back to field camps according to our plan. reporter: according to a spokesperson for secretary of state antony blinken, quote, support by the united states for ukraine will not change. the united states will stay in close coordination with ukraine as the situation develops. and russian officials offered this, quote: we ve warned the western countries against any hint of possible use of the domes
today on inside politics, cnn obtains audio that pits donald trump against himself. trump wants you to believe he was playing pretend, but listen here and you decide if it sounds like trump was telling the truth about showing off a classified document. this was done by the military and given to me. plus john roberts doesn t break. the chief justice with a theory to let states rewrite how they count your votes. and the house speaker opens pandora s box. kevin mccarthy suggests that maybe donald trump is not the republicans best bet to beat joe biden. let s go behind the headlines and inside politics. up first, which donald trump do you belief within the former president s legal team has to contend with a new problem. prosecutors can play this to a jury. isn t it amazing to have a big pile here? look. this was him. they pregnant prented me this. this is off the record. this was him. this was the defense department. this was him. this wasn t done by me. this was h
second whistleblower related to irs criminal investigation into hunter biden. that whistleblower wants to remain anonymous. he is referred to as mr. x. mr. x says it was clear that u.s. attorney david weiss was not making it is decision. merrick garland denied preventing weiss from charging hunter biden. both whistleblowers who spent years investigating hunter told congress they made several attempts to bring charges against hunter biden and were blocked. so explosive, not just fox news asking tough questions. was the president involved, yes or no? steven, i answered the question. it is not up to you how i answer the question. was the president there or not? i refer you to my colleagues at the white house counsel. have you spoken to the president, have you asked him if he was there with his son? this is not a conversation i had with the president. emily: legacy media has been unable to ignore the scandal. abc, cbs and nbc covered the story. there is evidence t
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