♪ >> brent: this is dw news live from berlin. russia's president gives a wagner mercer is a choice -- join the russian army early the country. in a video statement, putin said they could either join the russian army or go to belarus where their leader has reportedly agreed to go. this comes just hours after russia's mercenary leader said he did not intend to overthrow president putin in an audio

message. yevgeniy prigozhin says his actions on saturday were in protest of what he calls for leadership from moscow on the war in ukraine. nato's chief jens stoltenberg says the events in the weekend demonstrate the weakness and fragility of the russian regime. ♪ brent: i am brent goff. to our viewers watching on pbs in the united states and to all of you around the world, welcome. russia's president thanks citizens for the unity following the aborted revolt by the wagner mercenary group. putin said he will honor his promise to allow wagner fighters to relocate to belarus if they choose to, belarus, of course, being where wagner's commander yevgeniy prigozhin has agreed to go. or, he said the wagner

mercenaries can also sign a contract to join the russian army. he did not mention prigozhin. earlier the mercenary leader said his actions related weaknesses and mismanagement in russia's national security. let's listen in to what the russian president had to say just moments ago. >> to date you, the rebellious wagner fighters and commanders, have the opportunity to continue your service for russia by signing a contract with the russian defense ministry or other military fighters or go back to your family. those who want to leave for belarus can go to belarus. i thank those fighters and commanders of the russian mercenary group wagner who made the right decision and did not choose bloodshed, but stopped at the last moment. brent: we want to go now to russia analyst. constantine, it is good to see

you. we just heard there from president putin saying basically, you have a choice, you can either join our army or moved to belarus. what do you make of that? guest: i think it means that putin was to softly disband the wagner group and probably later re-create it in some other form, but now he basically goes back to what was debated a record date -- a week or 10 days ago, that all fighters have to sign a contract with the ministry of defense. but going to belarus, which to intents and purposes alexander lukashenko has turned into russia; he, is not your safest space if you want to leave russia. all of that is very raw, very half-court. bear in mind the fact that dmitry peskov announced half an

hour ago that putin's speech will be historic, remembered in history. this is very much a disappointment. all the time i am looking at the jokes that russians are basically launching, at this strange speech. brent: putin did not mention prigozhin at all in this video statement. and we don't know where prigozhin is right now. do we know anything about his whereabouts? what are you hearing? guest: no. there are some rumors you want to belarus, but they are not confirmed. people with whom i spoke in the russian opposition say they know nothing. again, if prigozhin is going to belarus, that is not the safest place for him to be because

putin will remember him as a traitor. in this speech he was never mentioned once by name. this is typical of putin who wants to make it look as if everything is fine. we should not talk about the past. but everyone remembers what prigozhin did so i do not think it is the last act for him. brent: on saturday when we saw prigozhin with his mercenaries moving towards moscow there was practically no resistance from anyone and yet we heard vladimir putin tonight praising the country for its unity. how unified is russia right now? guest: this is exactly the point of all the jokes that i was reading before coming on air, especially as we remember the scenes from the city of rostov-on-don the day before yesterday, people fighting with wagnerites. i think putin desperately wants to put a good face on the

situation which is actually very humiliating for him. i do not think no this is the last we have heard from him in these coming hours and days. brent: what about alexander lukashenko, leader of belarus. on saturday he was the unexpected mediator in this. what role is he really playing here? guest: brent, we don't even know whether he mediated. putin and lukashenko said they mediated, but there is nothing that we know. lukashenko promised to talk to reporters tomorrow. number two he said,, don't worry, it will be nothing spectacular, if you wish. so we will probably hear some version of events from him, but again, i am not certain that lukashenko was prorated as mediator just to save putin's face, because for putin to admit that he spoke and tried to convince a man he called a traitor in the morning, just

seven hours after that, that is very humiliating. so probably lukashenko was asked to intercede just to save putin's face. brent: asked to intercede and probably he had no choice but to do that. konstantin, as always, good to get your analysis. thank you. guest: are the best. brent: the man who launched the revolt in russia spoke in a video message today. wagner group leader yevgeniy prigozhin said he wanted to protest the russian government, not overthrow it. wagner's short-lived revolt has left moscow seeking to restore calm and reassert president putin's authority. questions remain about how the dramatic events will inform his next steps, and what they could mean for the war in ukraine. >> after a weekend of mayhem and revolt, operation save face has kicked in at the kremlin. it started with this video

released on russian state tv of defense minister sergei shoigu, front and center, seeing apparently visiting the frontline in ukraine in his first public appearance since the wagner revolt. a clear signal that he is still in charge. and then came a call for unity from russia's prime minister who praised president putin leadership during a glum-faced cabinet meeting. >> under these circumstances it is important to ensure sovereignty and independence of our country. the safety and well-being of our citizens. we need to act together as one team, maintain the unity of all forces by leading up behind the president and take calculated joint decisions to implement tasks given by the head of state. reporter: but despite the huge threat posed to his leadership by wagner's march on moscow,

there was no mention of the weekend's turmoil in vladimir putin's first statement since it all ended. instead we got a video address released by the kremlin in which he praises young engineers. [applause] [shouting] reporter: the u.s. and others have described saturday's revolt as a direct challenge to the russian president's leadership, but the wagner leader and his forces have not faced any punishment, despite putin's clear anger. as for progression himself he is supposed to be in belarus after pulling out with his troops. whether he has arrived there yet is still unknown, but he has released an 11 minute audio message in which he explains his reasons for taking action. >> there were two important factors for our decision to turn around. the first is that we did not want to spill russian blood.

the second, is that we were marching to show our protest, but not to overthrow the government of the country. reporter: all eyes will now be on the kremlin and let president putin does next, as questions grew over his grip on power, and the wagner group that has been critical to russia's war in ukraine. brent: ukraine's president zelenskyy honored soldiers today in a ceremony at an undisclosed location in the donetsk region. in a video, he told soldiers, " everyone knows you doing the most difficult work." he later posed for selfies with troops at a gas station. moscow has formerly claimed to have and the donetsk region, it has been occupied by russian-led forces since 2014.

let's go straight to our special correspondent in kyiv. the world is wondering what the situation in russia means for ukraine now. did president zelenskyy give us any hint? that anything has changed? guest: we haven't really heard anything from president zelenskyy since he tweeted all this yesterday. basically the official line from the president also from the foreign minister and the ministry of defense is that what is happening in russia is proof that the country suffers from severe internal political turmoil as a result of the invasion of ukraine and that that invasion is really showing the cracks in that system. we did see president zelenskyy make a surprise visit to the front lines looking very relaxed, he consulted with soldiers in a gas station, in very close proximity to the

front lines but also to the soldiers. that is a far cry from how we have encountered or experienced president putin in the past 36 or 48 hours or so since the crisis began, since this new technique, rebellion, whatever you want to call it, in russia began. this morning there was a video released of him making an official visit. not clear where it was recorded. then there was that speech that we just heard a short while ago which was very brief, very unlike president putin, who usually likes to speak for longer periods basically in an attempt to try and save face from what has happened in his country. so i think the message is, in president zelenskyy's visit to the east today and what try to projector the world is the image of a confident leader who has people truly behind him and around him unlike president

putin. when all this was happening in russia, there were no protests supporting him or anything of that sort. the images are so different from each other. brent: what are you hearing their in kyiv, how could all of this potentially affect ukraine's counteroffensive against russian forces? guest: well, there is a huge hope that the disarray in russian lines, something officials in ukraine have said, that any kind of chaos, in enemy lines, could be advantageous to ukrainians. as this mutiny and armed rebellion was happening, we saw a couple of attacks on villages around bakhmut. viewers will remember that city was captured in may after a long battle, after a lot of effort from wagner forces. we're seeing them trying to regain that, make some

breakthrough. we know that today there were some smaller villages three taken by ukrainian forces but we have not seen any strategic breakthroughs yet. we will have to wait a couple of days until we see if the events of yesterday and today really represented that massive window of opportunity. ukrainian officials turned to be tightlipped about progress on the battlefield. so it will just be something will have to continue watching closely over the next few days. brent: dw news aya ibrahim with the latest from kyiv as always, thank you. germany says it is ready to permanently station 4000 troops in lithuania to strengthen nato's eastern border. germany already has around 1000 troops on the ground there. reporter: a show of unity and strength. german and lithuanian soldiers conducting a joint exercise.

in the future they will work even more closely together, after some back-and-forth, berlin is ready to permanently deploy 4000 soldiers to lithuania. >> germany used to be the eastern flank of nato territory until the end of the warsaw pact. germany is the biggest economy in europe and an important member of nato and it will be able to take responsibility now for the new eastern flank. reporter: the deployment is based on the precondition that lithuania provides the infrastructure needed to host additional troops which will probably take until 2026. still, lithuania's president seems satisfied with the announcement, but he is asking for more support from allies. >> i am glad we were able to reach an agreement on the nato air defense model in the baltic

countries. it is a significant milestone in strengthening our security. we should continue moving in this direction in unity and resolve. reporter: nato is working on new defense plans to boost its air defense in the region, but that they question here is whether that would be enough, and what consequences the attempted wagner revolt could have. >> the events we saw unfolding in russia over the week and demonstrated weakness and fragility of the russian regime. it also demonstrates the danger of being dependent on mercenaries. at the same time, we need to remember that these are internal russian issues, not for nato. reporter: in two weeks, nato leaders will meet in lithuania for their summit. brent: u.s. president joe biden

says it is too early to draw conclusions about the impact of the wagner group process revolt in russia. he says he and alex had been in close contact over the weekend and he also said he had assured you can president zelenskyy that u.s. support for ukraine will remain strong. biden dismissed the idea that nations supporting ukraine had anything to do with the chaos we saw in russia on saturday. >> the situation began to develop as it did, i directed my national security team to monitor closely and report to me hour-by-hour. i instructed them to prepare for a range of scenarios. i also convened our key allies on a zoom call to make sure we were all on the same page. it is critical that we are in a coordinated response, coordinated in what we anticipate. they agreed with me that we have to make sure we gave putin no

excuse to blame this on the west and on nato. we made clear that we were not involved. we had nothing to do with it. this is part of a struggle within the russian system. brent: that was u.s. president biden there stressing that the u.s. and nato were not involved in what we saw over the weekend. let's go now to the dw's correspondent in washington. why was it so important for president biden to point this out? reporter: brent, this is a carefully calibrated communications decision. the word here is that the u.s. intelligence community didn't know in the weeks prior potential escalation between prigozhin and putin, so when it happened, they knew what they were going to say. this decision to dispel any notion of u.s. involvement seems to be grounded in circumspection. the idea that no one knows what happens next what this actually

means for the ukraine and russia. saying that this is an internal russian problem is the most careful way to proceed in a situation that can change dramatically and quickly. but what is interesting is that joe biden has refrained from using any labels in his remarks, he did not use the words coup, me today, revolt, rebellion, or any of the words we have been hearing. he has preferred to use words like "events," "or "situation." it gives us less of a clue as to what this was. but today we heard from the white house and from the state department. both seem to be acknowledging that this is a new point in this conflict. that this challenge to putin's power and his reason for invading ukraine is unprecedented. both say that the situation in russia remains dynamic.

so nobody here is operating under the assumption that this is over by any means. brent: we know that the u.s. president spoke with ukraine's president. what did he tell him? reporter: indeed as in much of the reporting that we have heard from our colleagues elsewhere, say from nato, from stoltenberg, the messaging has been similar from the u.s. as well. biden has basically reassured zelenskyy that support for the ukraine remains unchanging. that the u.s. will continue to support ukraine's defense and sovereignty and territorial integrity. a lot of pains have been taken to say that the u.s. is focusing on its mission to support ukraine. that the events in russia will not detract from this mission, but you can imagine that from behind closed doors, that is all everyone is talking about and

that there is massive scenario- building going on behind the scenes. brent: dw news janelle dumalaon in washington with the latest, thank you. let's look at some of the other headlines from around the world. in colorado, a court has handed down a life sentence to the man responsible for the murder of five people, and the attempted murder of 46 more in lgbtq nightclub. anderson lee aldrich entered the crowded colorado springs venue in 2022 and then shot his victims. sierra leone's president is on course to re-election -- he has already passed the threshold of victory with 60% of the votes counted. his opposition party said one of their volunteers died after police fired tear gas at their headquarters, on what they said was a very tense election day.

voters in guatemala have sent two candidates to a runoff election for the presidency. the former first lady of the server to une party received almost 50% of the votes in her opposition candidate got roughly 12%. flooding in chile has left several dead and hundreds missing. many have been forced to leave their homes. heavy rains have caused rivers to burst their banks in the center of the country. people in montreal are having to breathe in some of the world's most polluted air right now. that is because of wildfire smoke which has tore through several million hectares of forest across the country since january. canada has been hit by repeated extreme weather in recent years. scientists say the intensity and frequency are a result of global warming. at the moment clouds of smoke are blanketing quebec. reporter: thick gray smoke

clouds and what would normally be a sunny and clear summers day in montreal. it has blown over from wildfires raging in forest across canada. on sunday, air quality dropped to a level worse than anywhere around the world. >> it is really like fog, except that it is smoke because of the forest fires. it is really hard to breathe. my eyes sting a little, too, it is really hard to see. but it is ok with a mask. >> it really smelled like fire. reporter: over the weekend, the canadian environmental agency declared a smog warning in many areas of quebec and advise people to stay inside. outdoor swimming pools and athletic fields were closed, and outdoor events have been canceled.

at first the forest fires raged across the west of the country, but now they have also reached the northeast. quebec authorities say 80 wildfires are devastating the countryside. >> i mean, the whole country seems to be on fire these days. i think this is unprecedented, from what i have read in the press, we have never had so many fires at such an extent for such a long period of time, and it is just the beginning of summer! reporter: but there is hope on the horizon. according to weather forecasts, ratings on the way, bringing much-needed relief to western quebec. brent: some sports news, the berlin special olympics concluded with a closing ceremony at the brandenburg gate. almost 7000 athletes with intellectual athletes completed 26 events.

officials hope the success of the games will encourage germany's bid to host the 2026 summer olympics. >> the world's largest inclusive sporting event finished in a fitting way in berlin on sunday night with a spectacular closing ceremony at the city's famous brandenburg gate. the special olympics are more than 7000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 190 different delegations compete. more than 300,030 people at. under the motto "let me win, but if i can't win, let me be bravely attempt." for many of the competitors,, presenting themselves in the world stage was a dream come true. >> here i am now. it's just wonderful.

reporter: sporting success is just part of the key takeaways from the event. >> started to feel like family because you are with them for two weeks. the bonds will never be forgotten, i think. reporter: the events boss, equally delighted with how the days unfolded. >> our deepest thanks to all the people of germany who have welcomed our movement with open arms and made us feel like we are the most welcome human beings on earth. thank you, germany! [applause] reporter: as the special olympics come to a close, organizers hope that a new era of inclusion is set to start. ♪ brent: in athletics, the european championships in berlin saw a true display of team spirit. belgians short put and hammer champion stopped her team from being disqualified.

she tackled the event gainly after her country's two herders pulled out with injury. she finished right after the winter, of spain. her performance earned belgium two points and saved them from disqualification. and she has gone viral on social media for her gutsy effort. good for her. you are watching dw news. after a short break, i will be back to take you through "the day." stick around, we will be right back. ♪

anchor: it is 2:00 p.m. in paris and you are watching is 24. these are your headlines. in a statement to the nation, vladimir putin praises soldiers of the wagner group who avoided bloodshed, promising safe passage to belarus or entry into the army. yevgeny prigozhin claims he did not want over the russia's government, while warning the country's security was not to standard. kyriakos mitsotakis is sworn in