you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in the newsroom. we begin with a potential invasion of moscow by mercenaries, suddenly stopped in its track and a coup attempt on vladimir putin is averted for now. the wagner group was seizing control in the city earlier today. they claimed to capture the 60 without firing a single shot and here you can hear the soldiers cheering. prigozhin claimed to seize the city about halfway to moscow, and that s when prigozhin said he ordered his mercenaries to turn around. we re seeing the heroes welcome. he said he struck a deal to avoid a bloody conflict. translator: therefore realizing all the responsibility for the fact that russian blood will be shed from one of the sites, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan. recovering all the angles. let s begin in london with cnn s reporter. do we know what caused this sudden about face? they seemed to be on the way to moscow
he s turning his forces around from a march towards the russian capital potentially ending an apparent military coup against putin, but it remains unclear whether the most significant challenge from vladimir putin during his more than two-decades hold on pow er is truly over. the kremlin says as part of the deal wagner fighters will return to base and not face legal action for taking part in the march. the wagner chief said to be heading to neighboring belarus. u.s. intelligence officials tell cnn they believe prigoshin had been planning a major challenge to russia s military leadership for quite some time but were surprised by the rapid escalation of the situation. the white house says it s closely monitoring events in russia and that president biden is being continually updated by his national security team. we want to welcome viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer in london, and this is a special edition of the situation room. announcer: th
Covering the anticoup demonstrations in moscow. he said the world saw those protests thanks to cnn and that s why he refused the kgb orders. he told me if the coup had succeeded, he would have been sent to siberia or simply xeg kutd. a few months later in december 1991, i was back in moscow to report on the collapse of the soviet union, giving independence to its former republics including, of course, ukraine. if someone had suggested then that russia years later would attack ukraine, i would have never believed it. and e everyone, i m so anxious to see how this current historic moment in russia unfolds. to our viewers, thank you very much for watching. i m wolf blitzer in the situation room. in the meantime, jim acosta picks up cnn s special coverage right now.