the lead starts right now. the justices erase race-based college admissions. we re talking to one of the attorneys that argued in support of affirmative action before the court. then documents shared exclusively with cnn show a russian general, whose whereabouts is currently unknown, was a secret vip member of the wagner mercenary group. plus cnn s erin burnett joins us live from kyiv where she just sat down with former vice president mike pence during his surprise trip. the parkland resource officer who did not enter the building is found not guilty. welcome to the lead. i m abby phillip. jake tapper is off today. we begin with our law and justice lead. college admissions programs in america will no longer look the same. protesters gathered outside the u.s. supreme court after its landmark decision saying colleges can no longer take race into consideration as an expressed factor in admissions. now, this over turns longstanding precedent that has benefited black and lat
i had a chance to sit down with him. we had a long conversation. i asked him whether vladimir putin is losing his grip on power. i must just tell you is we don t know what we don t know about what s happening in russia. we ll have much more of that conversation next. plus we have a cnn exclusive about the russian general who has not been seen since saturday, totally m.i.a. his alleged strong ties to the wagner group uncovered today. if you don t stain your deck, it s like the previous owner is still hanging around.
power, now learning of possible ties with his military and the wagner elite. even if surovikin put his head down for a couple days, that s going to tear russian military ap apart. here in kyiv you know they re relishing that moment. absolutely. nick, thank you very much. former vice president mike pence was here, made an unannounced visit to ukraine, met with president volodymyr zelenskyy. pence is not unsure at all. he is very clear on his position on this. he toured the kyiv suburbs today, many of course still scarred by the heinous suspected war crimes of putin s soldiers during the invasion. he told families in irpin that the american people are praying
i m erin burnett reporting live from kyiv. in another sign of divided loyalty in the kremlin, documents shared exclusively with cnn, documents suggest that sergey surovikin was a vip member of the violent wagner group. keep in mind he has not been seen publicly in five days, the five days since yevgeny prigozhin marched towards moscow in a short-lived mutiny on sunday. matthew chance is inside russia. matthew, this is a crucial piece of information. i know you ve actually seen these documents. as you go through them, what do they reveal? reporter: they re fascinating documents, because we don t know the whereabouts of surovikin at the moment. it s interesting because these
high-ranking figures who have also been designated vip members of wagner as well. it s not clear what vip designation means, whether there s a financial benefit or they re on the payroll. that s not clear at this point. but it does imply that the russian military is perhaps overly close or has been overly close to this mercenary organization that as we know last weekend staged an attempted military rebellion in russia and was not prevented from moving into a major russian city, for instance, by the security services there. at the very least it implies, as you mentioned, divided loyalties. that may be something the kremlin wants to look into further. matthew chance in moscow, thank you very much. incredible to have that waccess.