erin incredible details talking about firing rifles and, worse, the harsh reality in stark contrast to what we saw from putin today. breaking news. a top trump ally appearing before the grand jury investigating the mar-a-lago classified documents as we learn tonight that trump s former white house counsel testifies. another major investigation involving the former president. a couple trying to vote in arizona allegedly filmed and photographed by a group accusing them off being a, quote, mule. this is beginning of a terrible and ugly election? let s go outfront. tonight, i wouldn t let any of us out there. those are the brutally honest words from a russian soldier sent to the front lines in ukraine. in a phone call with his sister, the soldier revealing the pathetic state of vladimir putin s army. it s important to hear his voice. translator: whatever we wear here, we bought ourselves. they re forcing us to go on camera to encourage the mobilized not to be afraid t
Show for a photo as the young men he sends into battle are painting their guns to cover the rust. there he is having a good time. putin putting on this show as he s on the verge of broadening his war in two major ways. one, another possible invasion. there s increasing fear tonight from ukraine that russian soldiers will soon reinvade from the north through belarus a. military official says russian mig fighter jets have been spotted on airfields in belarus and 10,000 troops are in the country for exercises. you re looking at exclusive video our fred pleitgen filmed at the time. the second way putin is expanding his war tonight is bringing another country into it. tonight we ve learned putin isn t just buying drones from iran, but he also may soon get
Fred, putin is finding more ways to escalate the war, even as we hear the audio from that soldier, the military is woefully unprepared and faltering on the front line. reporter: absolutely right, erin. the ukrainians believe that vladimir putin is trying to find even more ways to escalate things further if, in fact, his troops continue to get pushed back, especially down in the kherson region. tonight the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, said the ukrainians have information that the russians mined the strategically dam on the river, that it could flood an entire region, including-0 villages and the town of kherson and pose a serious threat also to the biggest nuclear power plant in europe, the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. they continue to push that counteroffensive in the south. here s what we re learning. as ukrainian forces press their counteroffensive in the country south, russia is resorting to
Erin, that s one of the reasons why it could be quite significant that vladimir putin was seen today at that base, at that training place to get with his defense minister because shoigu has been on the side. also the man who s actually pressing russia s offensive where i am, that would be from the private military country. there seems to have been a power struggle going on. it certainly something up in the air, erin. fred, thank you very much, reporting on the ground from kramatorsk. as putin and his defense chief met with the troops and, who knows, possibly plotting the attack from belarus. we re covering both angles tonight. retired air force colonel cedric leighton is standing by at the magic wall.
I want to go to douglas london, former cia counterterrorism chief. he spent three decades in the cia s clandestine service, pursuing russian intelligence officers, also fluent russian speaker. thank you very much for being with me. he s also the author of the recruiter: spying and the last affirmative american intelligence. this image today, putin with the sniper rifle inspecting troops with the defense minister in a very rare joint public appearance. what does this signal to you? i think fred had it right. putin needs to show continued control, continued strength, and there s been squabbling among his inner circle which clearly appears to be the case. as fred noted, it was the media chief that the russians recently arrested, and he was spearheading a lot of the online and media attacks. by standing with the russian draftees, he s demanonstrating