ukraine. cortney kube covers the pentagon. msnbc international affairs analyst michael mcfaul is the former u.s. ambassador to russia. and i m joined by retired army lieutenant general steph twitty, an msnbc analyst. matt, bring us up to speed on the situation on the ground there. reporter: we re observing the law in most cities in ukraine that imposes a curfew and a blackout so we can t do outside to do this shot. we re in the city of zaporizhzhia, in the southeast corner of the country. not so far from the besieged city of mariupol, which is becoming more hellish by the day. i just spoke with a soldier fighting inside that azovstol steel plant. this siege is ongoing with what looks like could be hundreds of soldiers and hundreds of civilians including children. the russians have bombed what sounded like a field hospital in that facility. we spoke with the soldier, he said they have infinite amounts of ammunition. i m not sure if that was just bombast or if that was really
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
sk crisis in russia. i m michael smerconish. putin warns those involved in the mercenary group will be punished. p prigozhin says they killed a, quote, huge amount of his men. a long-time ally of the kremlin, he claimed troops had taken control of facilities in the russian cities of voronezh and rostov-on-don without firing a shot. one general called it a coup d etat, but prigozhin deniesoco. there was an announced a criminal investigation of prigozhin and they were to stop and detain their leader. in an address to the nation, putin said this. translator: i repeat, any internal turmoil is a mortal threat to our statehood, to us as a nation. this is a blow to russia, to our people. so our actions to defend the fatherland against such a threat will be severe. all those who deliberately chose the path of treachery, who prepared a mutiny, who chose blackmail and terrorist methods will face punishment. joining me to discuss is retired u.s. attorney alexander vindman, on the
A former general did use the word attempted coup. i think he wanted to demonstrate his anger and the anger of wagner troops at some of the ineptitude and uncertainty and half measures that we ve seen in ukraine. i mean, the last 16 months have not been a happy military story for russia. now, what he ultimately intended i don t think anybody knows. i think he at some point feared for his life, possibly his family s life, and decided to call it off. where and how he will resurface, we don t know. i see that lavrov said today that, you know, wagner operations will continue and will continue across africa, but we need to, i think wait a day
I ve been sanctioned by putin, i can t ever go to russia so long as vladimir putin is in charge of russia. he s a war criminal. he s a terrible atrocious man, but so is prigozhin for that matter, but we have to tread carefully and lightly. the biden administration is doing just that. they re being cautious. they re assessing the situation. we re consulting with our allies. whenever you have a country that s sitting on several thousand nuclear warheads, you have to do that. an unstable, volatile russia is a dangerous russia, so we have to be very careful hear. there s a lot of outstanding questions that this entire incident brought up. the first question is why didn t the russian military actually come to vladimir putin s aid. the second is how did you have a 30,000 person mercenary force be able to move towards russia without any resistance whatsoever, but really, the third question and this is a really fundamental one vladimir putin is known for having the strongest intelligence s