and nick paton walsh joins me here in kyiv. what is the very latest there amidst all of this deep uncertainty? >> reporter: err have the course of the past few hours, we've seen a couple of people, vladimir putin, yevgeny prigozhin, sort of emerge from the weekend, and to make their first statement. putin's been notably absent since that wagner mutiny threatened his grip on power at the weekend. but he's now appeared on russian state television. basically saying that he did everything he could to prevent bloodshed and also restating an offer to the wagner mercenaries to either join the russian military or to move to belarus. >> translator: for the first time since the russian rebellion ended, vladimir putin has addressed his nation. a short speech condemning rebel leaders as traitors playing into the hands of russia's enemies. >> translator: they wanted russian soldiers to kill each other, to kill military personnel and civilians so that in the end russia would lose and our society would split, choke in bloody civil strife. >>

john. >> nick paton walsh, thank you. steve, prigozhin saying that there is a way forward and as others said he is a dead man walking, and what do you make of that, and how is life differently for putin today than a week ago? >> well, john, he has to know that he is significantly weakened, and it is certainly true vis-a-vis from the west, and that is true as of the last 18 months, but he must sense that he is weaker vis-a-vis of the people closest to him who are the closest adviser, and let me get this straight, were going to ukraine and it was over for a couple of days and this is what amounts a coup attempt, and what is with putin, and he would not be the first to be removed. gorbachev was removed for that reason. and so we don't know if this prigozhin is still alive or where he is. >> and who knows if the russians were having any success inside of the battlefield, and what happens to them? >> yeah, i would not say they were having anywhere near great success, but they were having success, and performing better than the

. >> cnn chief national security correspondent nick paton walsh is there. as we said, what's the latest? >> reporter: startling since we last spoke. there's an explosion that's related to the wag mer military. it's important because it's halfway between ross dove and moscow. they seem to have swarmed in there overnight. halfway to moscow, which they've claimed is their ultimate objective here. that is a startling thing, frankly to say. we're now in utterly unprecedented territory for the 23 years vladimir putin has run russia and something many thought may have been inevitable if there was adequate discontentment with how this war has been catastrophically bungled from the start, but the open nature of this armed rebellion it literature stunning. essentially moscow now remaining on what remains of its special loyal military to commit an act of fraticide. they've done a lot of ugly fighting and quite clearly they've decided enough is enough. these are brutal people, so we're not seeing a battle of good versus evil here. this all began on friday afternoon whe

i want to begin with our chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh. he is tracking developments for us. nick, first of all, bring us up to speed, where things stand, and very dramatic, very historic, where things stand right now. >> we started this morning with wagner troops in rostov-on-don itself, a vital southern military city, unimaginable to not be under russian government control, and key buildings, can with prigozhin it seems relaxed in there, as we head to the afternoon and early evening thou in moscow, there are reports suggesting that wagner forces are in the region of lipetsk, it is important to know the geography, there is a long highway that goes from the southern city of rostov-on-don, up towards the capital city moscow, which prig has been utterly clear is essentially where he wants to go. voronezh, you've seen the videos of the helicopter clashes from earlier on today, that is halfway. the next region, the indication here, is that wagner forces are moving very fast, and they may be 16, 17% up the road, 2 to 300 miles away from moscow. t

nick paton walsh, stand by. we will get back to you.y. coming up how this dramatic power struggle in russia right now could affect the country's war effort. stay with us. k, associated british ports can now precisely orchestrate nearly 600,000 vehicles passing through their uk port every year. don't jujust connect your business. (docock worker) right on time. (vo) make it even s smarter. we call this enterprise intelligence. - this is my coffee shop. and that's me and my custom shirt from custom ink. this week we mov into a new, bigger space, and brought on another employee. to celebrate, i ordered new branded gearor the whole team. everything was so easy to make with custom ink's design l. just chose my products, added our logo, and placed my order. our new gear really helps us look and feel like a team. bring your own team together with custom gear. get started today at customink.com. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on... ♪ [coughing] ♪ ...by, you know how i feel. ♪ if you're tired of st

nick paton walsh joins me in kyiv. matthew, let me start with you. you have obtained exclusive new documents. it's incredible to look at them. they list the general as a vip member of wagner group. tell us about this. >> reporter: yeah. it's really interesting, isn't it? it was well-known that the general has had close relations with the wagner mercenary group over the past several years, working closely with them in ukraine. earlier than that, working with them in syria as well where they have been engaged in russian military operations alongside the russian military. what's new tonight is this new evidence that suggests that this prominent russian commander was much, much closer to wagner than previously knowniss the last tie just how close is only now becoming clear. documents shared exclusive sly with cnn suggest he was since 2018 a secret vip member of the group, with a personal wagner registration number. the documents obtained by the russian investigative dossier center lists him along with at least 30 other senior russian narlry and intellige

. >> cnn's nick paton walsh is in kyiv tracking this for us. ck, tell us what else prigozhin is saying and whether this meshes with what we saw over the weekend. >> reporter: i mean, it does tally, it seems, with the explanation offered by the kremlin. and it's not too distant from the circumstances we saw on the ground, although prigozhin does appear to gloss over the fact that for a while he was involved in pretty serious violent clashes with the russian military. he said it only occurred when he was in fact attacked and doesn't seem to regret the loss of life, about 12 russian airmen. to some degree, yes. to other degrees, we're seeing a bit by prigozhin to water down the severity of what kurd. most notably in his desire to make it sound like it was a protest movement against the russian top brass in the months' held complaints against the war and most importantly to unseat vladimir putin. this may be yevgeny prigozhin realizing how he overstepped and trying to set the record straight. or maybe the result of some other dynamics that we're not

nick paton walsh, thank you so much. >> remarkable reporting son saturday in the middle of all this.nd bringing in our experts. global affairs kim dozier, david sanger, and retired u.s. army major mike lions, we appreciated you. nick paton walsh in the middle of his reporting from kyiv this weekend wrote a really fascinating piece and in it he said it's impossible to imagine putin's regime will go back to its previous heights of control from this moment, what does this mean actually for russia and for putin? >> well, we have to start, poppy, by saying we don't know but we do know that if you think about everything that we conceived about vladimir putin last week and what we think about on monday morning it's different. last week i was seeing a senior administration official and we were musing about the fact, this was probably early in the week, that we had not really seen any of the cracks in the putin regime that many had expected. okay? by this morning, boy have we seen them. it's a really open question. how did prigozhin not only plan this out, which u.s. intelligence, we think, h

for more, we go to chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh. he is live in kyiv. there had been some disappointment in recent weeks with the progress of ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive, at least from the perspective of western intelligence. there's some who see this as a potential opportunity for ukrainian forces there to push forward. do we know substantively if they've made any progress in the last 24, 48 hours? >> reporter: the dust is still settling in moscow, but there are certainly signs that ukrainian officials want to suggest continued progress around bakhmut, advances around that city, not into it. also suggesting in the zaporizhzhia region, the long southern front through which ukraine wants to break through russian lines and cut the peninsula occupied by russia off from the donbas. they claim progress has been made in that area as well. not much detail here at all. we don't know exactly what this has done, the wagner movements towards moscow, to the russian presence along the front lines. wagner was not only present along those front lines and certai

cnn has the story covered across the region with matthew chance in moscow, nick paton walsh in kyiv., i want to start with you. putin was visibly angry, and he declined to mention prigozhin's name. what's the sense of what he was trying to achieve with this speech? >> right. that was a very angry president putin that appeared on national television. and i think there's a sense in which he wants to, again, vent the anger. he's been sort of locked away for the past three days and nobody's seen him. so, this was the first time that he's gone on the internet, onto the national stage and international stage, and, you know, again, expressed how furious he is that this took place, that somebody so close to him, who was a sort of loyal ally in many ways and a very useful one over the past couple of years in the sense that yevgeny prigozhin has been, would turn against him in this way. he's also seeing his authority diminished and damaged because he's been challenged in such a public way. so, i think vladimir putin needed to get on national television and try and take some of that authority b

nick paton walsh has more on the battles. >> reporter: the sdchaos has yesterday to ease. close combat around bakhmut two weeks in to the continued grind of the counteroffensive open operations filmed over the weekend just as wagner troops rolled toward moscow. here the red, white and blue are russians in disarray and surrendering. the hope is more will follow as word spreads of the failed rebellion and morale and discipline falter. it was near here that ukraine proclaimed monday progress on the front lines with room for hope elsewhere. to the south another donetsk front near the heavily contested moniker, it appears some fighters were pulled to moscow for its defense for the weekend. here they are strutting along an apparent highway near the capital. bakhmut, an opportunity for ukraine in the east, but also further west near kherson, this bridge the scene of intense clashes. captured by this russian drone as ukrainian forces claim to cross over to the russian controlled eastern bank. opening another front perhaps. it is too early to tell whether or if russia is crumbling.

we have cnn's chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh and natasha bertram. nick, let me begin with you. weav we've been talking a lot about what we've seen today. we don't really know what the ultimate goal of prigozhin is. it is clearly the biggest challenge to putin, although he's not naming putin. what do we know about what his ultimate aim is? >> i think it may have inevitably transformed itself through the momentum of his forces moving through russia from his initial goal, which appear to be a spat with russia's top brass. i can't really see a situation where putin can accept what prigozhin has done and try and put the clock back. we've seen extraordinary developments today. the wagner presence in rostov controlling key facilities there unthinkable in such a massively important southern town. we've seen them slowly moving up the m-4 highway in the direction of moscow. what they do when they get there, what kind of russian forces they're met with unclear. russia is so sparsely defended. we've already seen how vulnerable it's been on border areas to ukrain

nick paton walsh, cnn, kyiv. >>> for more, clare sebastian is with me in london. we'll talk about the latest attacks in kramatorsk in a moment, but first mystery about the existing wagner fighters whether or not they are signing up with russian military or heading somewhere else. >> if we assume that lukashenko is correct and prigozhin is now in belarus, the question is we didn't know how many of the troops. he says very few have accepted the offer to sign up with the russian ministry of defense. some are still this ukraine. but will they then go to on belarus is the big question. lukashenko denied that they are building camps there for wagner but that they could have abandoned land there if they want. so is this wagner 2.0, a unit of the russian military or belarusian. so it is not so much who they are affiliated with but how many return to the battlefield. take a listen to the foreign minister. >> if wagner falls into pieces but part of it will move to the regular -- will become part of the regular russian army and end up on the frontline fighting in exactly as

nick paton walsh, thank you. sara? >> with us to share her expertise is adjunct professor and c nshgnn contributor jill dougherty, you have lived there and you have real knowledge there. this is the first nick in putin's grasp, and it is important to know that we did not see any resistance as the mercenaries were marching into russia. what do you make of that? >> yeah, that was really significant, because if putin really wanted to squash them, he could. he could have. because obviously he has the forces, but why didn't the forces take action. so either they couldn't, and they were incapable in some fashion or maybe supported prigozhin, and that a possibility or maybe putin didn't want the fighting outside of moscow. say they got very, very close to moscow, and can you imagine a firefight outside of moscow with the russians shooting at each other? it did happen in the south, but if it happened in moscow, it would be embarrassing doesn't cover it, but it would look like a disaster, and so maybe the three factors taken to

we also have our nick paton walsh here, because, nick, a question hanging over the fallout from this inside russia has been the fate and the location of the wagner chief, yevgeny prigozhin. new satellite photos give us a clue. what do you know? >> reporter: absolutely, it seems to be suggestions from satellite images showing an air base on the outskirts of minsk, that planes afilliated with him have indeal landed there. that would provide some sort of independent verification of statements we heard from alexander lukashenko who said that yevgeny prigozhin had landed in belarus. we have to wait given the bizarre opaque nature of the last three days around this particular armed rebellion for prigozhin himself to admit he's got to minsk. what we heard today essentially tallied with the statements we heard from the kremlin and prigozhin himself and sprawling 11-minute audio message we heard yesterday, lukashenko saying that he got in contact with prigozhin and after a rant, prigozhin after multiple calms agreed to turn his tanks around on the way to moscow and go to belarus where he was

kyiv.n's nick paton walsh is in i want to read the lead ofr new piece.eismic shifts in moscow must surely spell similar earthquakes along the frontlines in ukraine. so take us inside the politics of the kremlin right now. >> reporter: yeah, clearly, vladimir putin standing around today at every opportunity you can find after two and a half days of being ab sent as the armed rebellion against him seemed to find a resolution. negotiated by a man he uses as a subordinate. putin at the kremlin standing in front of military offices, in front of the minister of defense, whose fate this has all been about. and then also with soldiers too and a later audience where he talked about the wagner group that turn against him had to the tune over a billion dollars been financed by the russian state. to try to make its head look like a corrupt profiteer. but putin very late in game coming forward and offering his narrative oddly telling russian forces it was their intervention and their unity and bravery that saved the russian state when on saturday as wagner tanks were

let's go straight first to our chief international security correspondent, nick paton walsh. nick, these are fast-moving developments, historic moments unfolding. what's the latest? >> reporter: we have a full 180 from yevgeny prigozhin, the head of wagner, moving quietly into the southern city, on the outskirts of moscow's -- the main capital city. to suddenly now saying indeed he's decided to turn around his forces and put them in field camps. images emerging of those same forces leaving rostov possibly to go back toward ukraine. a startling day which still at this point doesn't make an awful lot of sense. in fact, we're getting more information on the kremlin's take on what's happened today from the kremlin spokesperson, demetri peskov, who has said that yevgeny prigozhin after leaving his armed forces it seems almost to within distance of moscow where they were a palpable threat to the capital has, in fact, decided to go and live in belarus. peskov, the kremlin spokesperson, in extensive comments explaining what happened here suggested that in fact this deal have been brok

cnn of nick paton walsh is back and bringing in retired wesley clark, retired colonel cedric leighton both cnn military analysts. general clark, moscow was bracing for a potential wagner assault. no doubt about that. now the kremlin struck a deal with prigoshin. what's your reaction to these late-breaking developments? >> i agree with what was said. we don't have all the facts. missing facts. don't add up, number one, do we really know there was a rocket strike on prigoshin's troops? don't really flow that. seen video but no evidence of that. we no tactical nuclear weapons supposedly moved into belarus. is it possible this is a mass raid of distraction to be able toll redeploy the wagner group troops into belarus? we don't know that and don't really understand the essence of the deal. so there's a lot of facts here that don't make sense, but it doesn't seem to prigoshin is the kind of person who would have lost something like this, prepared for it, and then suddenly just decide, well, i don't seem to have the troops aboard. i think i'll cut a deal and go into exile in belarus. this is

cnn's nick paton walsh is joining us from kyiv on this story.cy of putin's critics turning up dead, how surprising is this? >> reporter: i think the thing that's most surprising is that yevgeny prigozhin appears to still be a free man and very much alive as far as we can tell. now ukrainian defense intelligence obviously part of their job is to sow information out there, be it true or not. they do have good sources about what's happening inside russia a lot of the time to be sure that the republicans are always watching their backs and feeling uncomfortable in their war of choice here invading ukraine. yevgeny prigozhin, as you say, has not been seen in public for quite some time, not since rostov on saturday. left a lengthy audio message days ago describing the deal he made. part of that deal with the kremlin and also belarus' president lukashenko involved him going to belarus. now we know that the president of belarus says that's happened, but yevgeny prigozhin, who's never been shy about telling people of his whereabouts or thoughts over the

nick paton walsh is with us and we're together in kyiv. interesting in bakhmut, talking to soldiers there, they thought there was initial panic on the part of the russian forces but then quickly went back to business as usual. unclear how russian soldiers are responding to this. what do you think this means for the count offensive? >> if you're ukrainian officials, you're trying to seize the moment of perhaps knowing there's chaos or trying to work out if that will continue to unravel in moscow in the days ahead. we don't know if this will be a months' long saga of putin losing control or whether this is the peak of that chaos. that may be determining whether they determine to throw all their cards in at some point, as, too, the question of where any troop dislocations may leave russian front lines weakest. >> big questions about that. just talking to a couple of soldiers, the morale seemed high, four days on, four days off. operations on the ukrainian side is operating efficiently, at least in these particular instances. what does control

cnn's nick paton walsh is in ukraine tonight. he's covering the new developments. what message is putin sending with this latest appearance? >> i think it's a pretty cheap bit to replicate the scenes. we saw in rostov on saturday when yevgeny prigozhin, the unsur ekz leader had people coming embracing his hand in an suv. we saw from test against some of the mobilization that we saw last year with a crowd that looks, frankly, pretty staged, very adoring and very close to him and not the putin that kept everyone at a distance during the pandemic and for quite a while after it, but it comes after a day in which more reporting is emerging suggesting the split and dangers from his own military top brass. i spoke to a european intelligence official who said it was possible that there had been prior knowledge amongst the russian military and establishment of this insurrection. they said they heard of hints to that effect and possibly some of those people that, in fact, wanted to see how it played out or even see it succeed and that putin's prestige had been damaged and th

cnn's nick paton walsh joins us from ukraine's capital kyiv with more on this. e information if it is all correct. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, look, we're going to see a lot of speculation, that's what the kremlin has dismissed some of these reports as being, but also genuine details emerging in the days ahead about what on earth just happened over the weekend. the "wall street journal" suggests citing western officials that indeed there was a bid by prigozhin to capture shoigu and who is blee gerasimov when they were in rostov. that has plausible and we do know that shoigu was in rostov-on-don when prigozhin headed in that direction and prigozhin said that shoigu fled like a coward from rostov late on friday just after prigozhin said was an air strike on a wagner camp that sparked his armed rebellion and move on rostov. the suggestion, too, in the "wall street journal" -- and this is backed up by public statements by the head of russia's national guard -- is that there were leaks coming from the prigozhin camp ahead of this plot, suggesting it would take place be

cnn's nick paton walsh is following all of those developments, and there are many, from kyiv. no sign yet of many key figures. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. and with that, too, the mystery around the grip on power vladimir putin has does indeed grow. without knowledge of the fate of these individuals, it's still unclear how in control of the situation he really is. now sergei sorovikin is an important figure not only because he ran the role in ukraine earlier in year and was considered by some in the west to be a dangerously competent, i quote, general in charge of that, but he was also one of the only members of the russian top brass who yevgeny prigozhin, the rebellion leader, spoke of in a complimentary fashion. he also appeared on friday as this rebellion was getting under way, in a video, looking uncomfortable. it seemed to be holding some sort of weapon under his right hand and gave at times a labored address where he basically told the rebels go home, stop this. he's not been seen in public since. so there have been a growing number of reports in the media suggesting th

cnn's nick paton walsh is in kyiv. , we know the ukrainian military is claiming some small gains on the eastern and southern front in the last 24, 48 hours. is it possible those advances are connected to a perception among ukrainian commanders that now is a time to strike, that there's weakness in russian leadership? >> reporter: we're only going to know certainly if these are connected to the weekend's events in the days ahead a little early, but you can be in no doubt that you will be in ukraine here and senior leadership observing what's happened in moscow and not necessarily popping champagne corks but thinking this is a moment where the disarray at the top should be seized upon but that could take time and there may also be a reluctance in kyiv to get in the way of russia making this level of mistakes, they don't want to create an existential crisis that may get people to rally around putin, but we are seeing in the far east of the front line near kherson suggestions that ukrainian force right side on the move ther

nick paton walsh joins us live from kyiv. this general was once for a brief period of time, once the top commander of the war in ukraine? >> reporter: absolutely, and considered pretty competent and effective when he had that role. sergey surovikin was demoted and put in charge of the air force with a deputy role in the ukraine war after people considered over the winter that the fight around kherson had gone against the kremlin. now, he's also one of the few commanders that yevgeny prigozhin spoke complimentarily of. he was last seen on friday as this rebellion got underway appearing somewhat uncomfortable on a video essentially telling everyone to stand down. go back to their bases and not continue the march on moscow. he's not been seen since. it's important to point out value ri gerasimov has not been seen in public too. surovikin, suggesting in "the new york times" that perhaps he had full knowledge. i've been told by european intelligence officials there are hints that some of the russian military establishment may have

that will work in ukraine's favor. >> nick paton, walsh thank you.ight in addition to what's happening in russia, the developments there. here at home we have a cnn exclusive. cnn has obtained the audio that is central to the special counsel's investigation. it is the former president talking on tape, that he knew it was being recorded about classified documents. we have political analysis, including from someone who worked for trump, coming up next. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. sometimes, the lows of bipolar depression feel darkest before dawn. with caplyta, there's a chance to let in the lyte. caplyta is proven to deliver significant relief across bipolar depression. unlike some medicines that only treat bipolar i, caplyta treats both bipolar i and ii depression. and in clinical trials, movement disorders and weight

. >> joining me now, chief international correspondent nick paton walsh. ry how fast this is indeed moving. it appears as are wagner's vehicles, we don't know how many, towards the capital moscow. that is their stated aim. prigozhin saying they're headed in that direction. initially, it seemed to remove the top brass of russia's military, but the kind of confrontational back and forth between president putin and prigozhin we've been hearing the last hour suggests possibly, essentially, they're looking to entirely change the government of russia. if they get there, unclear, but their progress is reasonably fast at this stage. the governor of a region points out where this is. it is pretty much half to two-thirds of the way to the rostov-on-don city you're seeing pictures of, in which wagner moved into last night, heading toward moscow. it suggests a fast rate of progress. we don't know how big this column of vehicles is, but it is certainly moving pretty fast. the governor of that region says his police, his laws enforcemen bodies are doing all they can to p

we have cnn chief international security correspondent with us nick paton walsh, national security reporter natasha bertrand. nick, i guess the question now is not only where prigozhin will take the forces back to, where are the field camps? and do we think he can survive this blatant challenge to putin? ? >> yeah. look, it's not really in putin's russia where you march your armed insurrection to where he claimed was 200 kilometers outskirts of the capital and say, you know what i don't really want to shed any blood here. i'm going to just turn around. clearly, i think we'll see more fallout from this. quite whether or not the president that vladimir putin treats with contempt half the time somehow magically parachuted into this and intervened to calm everybody down. we simply don't know. but at this point, obviously, you have prigozhin marching into the capital with what is presumably not a big enough force to military occupy is a bad idea. he certainly made his point throughout the day in which, i'm sure, the russian elite may have been wondering quite how saturday would indeed end. now t

i'm here with nick paton walsh here in kyiv. you see one name and the others blurred out. we wonder if we'll earned up seeing those names later, what will happen to them. at this point, of course, we still don't know where general surovikin is. >> absolutely. multiple reports are deeply concerning. he's a key figure, used to run the war in ukraine and the only member of the russian top brass who seemed to have -- excuse me -- yevgeny prigozhin had something nice to say. there are reports he was detained, another saying he was arrested. russian official with knowledge of pretrial detention facilities says he's not in one of those. it could be he disappeared for a bit and is now a free man. we just don't know. >> right. this is the mystery around it. it also comes, of course, of yevgeny prigozhin outside that 11-minute video has not been seen. >> not a man that has been publicity shy. >> usually every couple days -- >> every hour you'd have a rant. >> out with his troops, on someone. >> we know that lukashenko says he should be in belarus. we know planes affiliated with him

. >>> i want to go to nick paton walsh who is in kyiv, ukraine's capital. ck, how will prigozhin's comments that this was a protest and not a coup and what he specifically said that nick was just reporting about the way that the war inside russia is being prosecuted, how will that land where you are in ukraine? >> reporter: i mean, it's sort of, i think, irrelevant to some degree to ukrainians so long as this remarkable revenge tragedy drama continues to play out. yevgeny prigozhin showing miscalculation, perhaps, or not telling us the entirety of the story that he somehow thought he could take his troops, he says, hundreds of miles on the road up to moscow and then suddenly change his mind and not have russian president vladimir putin think that that might have been a challenge to the kremlin head himself. he's so keen to point out this notion of it basically being a protest about how wagner was being treated and the conduct of the war rather than a challenge to moscow itself. but this continues as it seems does prigozhin's belief that he can keep wagner as

nick paton walsh is in kyiv, ukraine, with more on this.re are you hearing from the military intelligence chief about this claim? >> reporter: the statement is limited, who is basically tasked with finding out information russia doesn't want ukraine to have but also spreading information at times that would compromise russia, and this may possibly fall into the latter category. we don't know where he received this piece of data from. ukraine does have good intelligence sources in russian ranks clearly. he's aware that the sfb, the russian security services have been tasked with assassinated yevgeny prigozhin. whether that's successful or not, we'll see over time. the mere prospect being raised suggests it's fair to say, we really don't know how well the supposed deal between yevgeny prigozhin who led an armed rebellion against vladimir putin. prigozhin was supposed to go to belarus and say there, but a man who's not publicity shy has not emerged in belarus. his president has said he's there. there have been unconfirmed sightings of him in s

nick paton walsh is also with me in kyiv. i want to begin with you, matthew, because, obviously, there's some very serious questions here that are going to impact a lot of people, all of us. what is the latest on the ground there tonight? >> reporter: well, i mean, it's been a very fast-moving week. it has only been a week since that armed rebellion by wagner mercenaries flared up and shook the country before being quickly aborted. the russian authorities, the kremlin have been desperately since then trying to repair the damage to their authority. and they've started, it seems, by trying to shore up the support of the russian military. near the front lines, a tattered-looking russian army unit is grilled on camera about their treatment. are you offended or used as cannon fodder, the commander asks. no, is the response. we are well trained and well fed, the commander insists. all this talk of mistreatment is nonsense. a week after an aborted uprising in russia amid complaints the ukraine war is being mishandled, keeping the mi

>> nick paton walsh in kyiv. keep us posted. sara?s look at the bigger picture and what this could have meant for putin if prigozhin had been successful. dmitri alperavic joins us now. you just heard "the wall street journal" reporting what we were all talking about. i'm curious if you think this is intelligence trying to get into putin's head or if this is a possibility that there will be a much larger revolt here that just fell away? >> i think it's a little bit of both. i think "the wall street general" certainly tracks and we know shoigu was in the city of rostov and he fled hours before prigozhin's troops got there, but this was such a hair brained scheme from the start. even if prigozhin had succeeded and even if he had taken defense minister shoigu and chief of general staff garerasimov, and don't think putin would have fallen for that blackmail and i don't think it would have changed anything. >> i'm curious what you think about what will happen to prigozhin and anyone else that the fsb or that, you know, putin's close corners

nick paton walsh is in kyiv for us.kraine wants to capitalize on this power struggle in russia, can they do that? >> yeah, that is the ultimate question in kyiv for the days ahead. you were hearing there about the acute level of chaos that may still yet come to russia top brass ranks, whether or not the defense minister and the head of the ukraine campaign end up leaving their jobs. it's unclear at this stage what level of turbulence the move by wagner to moscow has caused on the front lines. many say he was necessarily involved in frontline fighting. the units were prepared and have been away from the front for some time. but what has this done to moral? ukraine is saying they managed and they are -- to move forward one or two kilometers on the outskirts of bakhmut. and they've made some progress in zaporizhzhia where many believes ukraine wants to make a breakthrough to cut the crimean peninsula off from the russian mainland proper. so suggestions that we might be seeing some kind of progress, but it's hard to get spe

we have cnn's chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh, jim schiotto and wesley clark. we know about wagner. we know it's managed to be pretty much the only results-based group in this misconceived invasion against ukraine. what do you think is at the heart of this current challenge by prigozhin to putin. >> it's interesting. that's a question i don't have a ready answer to. it's fair to see there is a degree of frustration among the ranks of wagner, many of them thrown towards the front line, often complaining about a lack of ammunition and say they found themselves on the receiving end of an angry russian top brass who both mismanaged the war and are now taking vengeance on prigozhin for speaking out on friday. there may be some personal ambition of prigozhin in this. this is a man very close to putin for many years. i think we're looking at a turning point in the war here certainly. the ultimate question is what level of support can putin hope to get from the russian military itself. they are frail inside of russia. they've had attacks from ukraine over the past mon

. >> we have cnn chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh live for us in kyiv, ukraine. i do want to talk to you, nick, of course, about this russian revolt but before we do that there are some breaking details about a russian strike on a civilian area in eastern ukraine. what do you know at this point? >> reporter: well, that drama around moscow of the civilian toll that putin's unprovoked invasion of ukraine continues to enforce. hit by one, possibly two missile strikes. the images you are seeing right now are of a pizza restaurant in the city center, it has a clothing and jewelry shop near it, too. it appears to have been hit by this strike. there may be casualties, injured, possibly dead, possibly as well. you're seeing there local people clearing through the rubble, a search and rescue operation there frantically under way. a local official posting on facebook simply the word tragedy. we don't know if this was specifically targeted, it is popular with locales, can be busy at earlier times during the day, off duty military there often as well. russia notoriously clu

nick paton walsh, thanks so much. let's go to seen your correspondent fred pleitgen. talk about this. prigozhin rose as a close ally for putin for many, many year. he was once a wealthy oligarch and effective leader of a private military group and now he's challenging putin's grip on power p. >> yeah, the leader of a whole empire if you will, am rachl it really is a rise that's also unprecedented inside russia, but certainly one that also speaks to how vladimir putin controls the country. we have to keep in mind yevgeny prigozhin is still known to many people as being putin's caterer or putin's chef because he ran a catering service that apparently catered to vladimir putin as well and then became close aerd closer to the russian president and started building this big empire which began propaganda indianapolis substitutions and meddled in the 20167 u.s. election. yevgeny prigozhin was one of those sanctioned by the u.s. for meddling in the 2016 election. but he then built that empire, including wag anywhere private military company. he's the head of it. it's one of t

nick paton walsh is live in kyiv with the latest. what putin is doing is of keen interest, not just in russia but also in ukraine. >> reporter: absolutely and it's this chaos which i'm sure ukrainian officials here were hoping would unfurl in the wake of the startling rebellion. su surokin was one of the few top brass that yevgeny prigozhin, the wagner chief who led the rebellion spoke kindly of. we haven't seen him in public since a friday video telling the wagner rebels to stop and stand down. he looked harried in that video, obviously because of the circumstances or as some suggested he wasn't conversational with the message he was giving. i heard that some in the security or military establishment might have known a little bit about this beforehand. that's still unclear. it's also unclear where surokiv is, there are reports that he's not been seen and a former mp is suggesting he's okay and at work as per normal. it's likely we'll get an answer by his appearance some time soon but where he's been the past three and a half days th

we have cnn chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh, national security reporter natasha bertram, and former cia chief of russia operations and cnn national security analyst steve hall. so nick, we were on together as this breaking news came of this latest intervention by prigozhin and his latest telegram audio message. having taken a very significant military headquarters in the last 24 hours. do we think now that the prigozhin threat is over? >> reporter: no. i think it would be premature to suggest that. and indeed, he says the only reason he's turning around his columns on the way to moscow, having he says got 200 kilometers within the city outskirts is to stop bloodshed. he doesn't make a reference to a negotiation where the president of belarus -- that's done by the belarusian president's own staff suggesting that lukashenko intervened after speaking to putin and some sort of deal appears to have been hatched. i don't think we know the entirety of it. it may be that there are going to be significant changes at the head of russia's ministry of defense. but even if th

but as nick paton walsh reports, even though prigozhin does seem, we don't know if he was on a plane, seemed to be outside of russia. putin's troubles are not over. ♪ >> reporter: president putin is used to conjuring his own reality on state tv. but it was not clear during an array of post rebellion pomp on tuesday who is left buying it. his top brass, whose removal it was all about, still remarkably there too. as putin surreally thanked land forces to intervene as wagner advanced on moscow on the weekend for saving russia. >> translator: he you defended constitution. you stopped a civil war. >> and later he told soldiers that the russian state had paid a billion dollars to the rebelos wagner group as it fought in ukraine over the past year. >> i want everyone to know about this. the maintenance of the entire wagner group was fully provided for by state. we fully funded this group from the military of defense and from the state budget. >> reporter: it was a strange, a bit to see prigozhin last seen here in rostov on saturday as a corrupt profiter. and as prigozhin, no longer the targe

>> nick paton walsh, on the news, reporting for us. thank you very much. sources meanwhile tell cnn that western allies were reportedly caught offguard by what we've seen transpiring in russia today. and that includes the white house, which is closely monitoring all of the situation, joining us now, cnn's natasha bertrand joining us from the pentagon and pra sill la alvarez is over at the white house for us now. natasha, what more can you tell us, first of all, about what u.s. and western officials know about this current very dramatic historic situation that is unfolding? >> well, we don't know a whole lot at this moment. they're watching closely to see how things unfold in the next 24-48 hours and importantly watching how long wagner can keep this up before they run into supply shortages. but broadly, the administration as well as swern officials were caught offguard by how fast this all escalated because they of course have been watching closely the deteriorating relationship between prigozhin and the russian ministry of defense, with prigozhin repeated

our chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh is in ukraine. you tell me more about your reporting on this and what it revealsm because it seems like it could have some implications for putin's grip on power? >> it is really unclear at this stage. and that is something echoed by the europe intelligence official i spoke to. they're still dealing with a fog. but in their assessment so far, there are hints that part of the russian military or security establishment may have had prior knowledge of what happened over the weekend. perhaps they waned to see how it turned out or perhaps wanted it to succeed. and indeed, they do point out how putin's prestige has taken a significant dent since that occurred and perhaps that is to the liking of some factions in the sprawling moscow elite who fight amongst themselves. the source said they haven't seen a perch as of yet, there are indications that turmoil within the elite will continue to roll on. and that sort of tallies with sp of the reporting we've been hering from "the new york times" who have suggest

my colleague nick paton walsh spoke with a european intelligence official who told him that there are hints that some in the military, possibly sorovikin knew about these plans ahead of time and either stood aside and didn't do anything, or did indeed try to help wagner. that of course, wolf, would put sorovikin and others firmly in the kremlin's sights. wolf? >> alex marquardt with the latest information, thank you very much. >>> also tonight, we just saw vladimir putin out in public, swarmed by crowds during a surprise appearance. let's go to our senior international correspondent matthew chance. he is joining us live from moscow right now. matthew, so what do these new pictures tell us about putin's message and his challenges right now after the mutiny? >> well, i mean, those challenges are considerable. he has to rebuild his authority. he has to rebuild his popularity, or shore up his popularity. i think that's what we're seeing the kremlin try to do in this latest sort of media event that's appeared on television. look at this. this is the russian president in dagestan, which is