tonight, we begin with breaking news out of russia. a major twist in that country s war against ukraine. vladimir putin forced to confront a rebellion within his own borders. just hours ago, we learned that if guinea prigozhin, the owner and the head of the wagner group and mercenary force that has been fighting alongside the russian military and ukraine, halted his advance on to the country s capital. that announcement came shortly after prigozhin claimed he and his fighters had captured the city of rostov-on-don home to the russian military headquarters for its war in ukraine. since their invasion last year, moscow has become dependent on the back in a group to support the war efforts as they re dwindling russian forces struggle to make significant gains inside ukrainian territory. in december, the u.s. said it believed the group had an estimated 50,000 personnel inside ukraine alone. it made up of about 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts that were recruited from inside
a major development in the investigation into former president donald trump and his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. news that the special counsel plans to go directly to the supreme court to answer some key questions about immunity in this prosecution. plus, new polls and major questions for president biden. right now, he is trailing former president trump in two critical battleground states that helped propel bite into the white house in 2020, so is it time for a new approach? we will dive into the numbers. and back on x get elon musk welcomes conspiracy theorist alex jones back to the platform to bubble the decision cost him? we are following these major developing stories and more coming in right here on cnn news central. we start this afternoon with a stunning development today in russia. a key critic and chief political rival of vladimir putin is now missing. allies of russian opposition leader a.j. alexy noah vonleh said they have not had contac
agreement that the brokered leaves prigozhin in enough autonomy too control his mercenaries outside of the war of ukraine. for putin, that s a huge loss. because it s a huge loss in the public sphere, as i ve already mentioned, because there is a competing actor now. but also it s a huge loss for him in ukraine to no longer have this aggressive force that can scripts from the prison colonies and could be used and the sly as can part. how does this impact vladimir pin? how do you think this kind of splintering between putin and the beckoned ripples shape how putin is perceived in the public high? perhaps if they re any adversaries within putin s orbit waiting in the moment to strike, perhaps an opposition figure or someone who wants to emerge to challenge putin, you know, he knows that this is a