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Wagner Chief Halts Mercenaries' March To Moscow; Russia: Yevgeny Prigozhin Won't Be Charged, Will Go To Belarus; Wagner Chief Says His Mercenaries "Are Turning Around." Aired 6-7p ET

Aired June 24, 2023 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: If someone has suggested then that Russia years later would attack Ukraine, I would have never believed that, and now, like everyone, I'm so anxious to see how this current historic moment in Russia unfolds.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM." I'll be back tomorrow for more special coverage.

In the meantime, Jim Acosta picks up CNN's special coverage right now.

[18:00:28]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good evening.

We begin the hour with a potential military invasion of Moscow by Russian mercenaries suddenly stopped in its tracks and a possible coup attempt on Russia's Vladimir Putin is averted for now.

These are mercenary soldiers from the Wagner Group, apparently seizing control of important Russian military facilities in the city of Rostov-on-Don, earlier today.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

ACOSTA: They claim to capture the city without firing a single shot and here, locals are heard cheering for the soldiers. Wagner's chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin also claimed his seize the city of Voronezh about halfway to Moscow and that's when Prigozhin says he ordered his mercenaries to turn around. This is video of them pulling out of one town and here is Prigozhin receiving a hero's welcome as he leaves.

He says, he struck a deal to avoid a bloody conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, WAGNER GROUP CHIEF (through translator): Therefore realizing all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: We are covering all the angles of this story reverberating around the world. Let's begin in London with CNN's Nick Payton Walsh.

Nick, do we know what prompted this sudden about face by the Wagner Group? They seem to be on their way to Moscow and then they stopped.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, an utterly bizarre end to a 24 hours that's clearly shaken the control of Vladimir Putin over Russia, certainly.

We may learn what the real reason is. On the surface, what we're hearing at this time, Jim, is the suggestion that a phone call from the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko may have made some potential intervention here suggesting a way out for Yevgeny Prigozhin. He has made no real public statement as to why he made this abrupt 180 when he says he was 125 miles from the outskirts of Moscow, apart from say, as you heard there, he wanted to avoid bloodshed.

So you might perhaps see that you saw his forces so unimpeded marching towards the capital, that perhaps lost his nerve, that would seem highly unlikely given how prepared some of these units were over some time.

Maybe he didn't get the support he had hoped along the way or more likely, there is something else that we simply don't know about at the moment, Jim.

And remarkably, the Kremlin sort of laid out a very simple series of solutions after a day in which frankly, their grip on power had seemed in doubt.

Yevgeny Prigozhin will go to Belarus, they say. He was pictured leaving Rostov. He has made no comment on that proposal. His fighters involved in this march on Moscow as it is being termed, well, they won't be persecuted or prosecuted, they will be given a sense of immunity after their heroic acts on the frontline. That's according to the Kremlin. And those in Wagner, the mercenary group Prigozhin heads who want to join the Ministry of Defense can do so.

So a sort of nice bow, frankly, wrapped in a day of utter chaos, but it doesn't really make any sense how this morning, Yevgeny Prigozhin is marching on Moscow, demanding the top brass of Russia's military are kicked out. He's accused blackmail terrorist methods by Russian president, Vladimir Putin who says he must inevitably be punished and those alongside him, and now suddenly, it's all forgotten and he is in exile in Belarus.

It doesn't make sense. We're clearly missing information here. What is absolutely clear, though, is that the Putin administration, the Putin regime looks like it has significantly weakened its grip on power over the last 48 hours -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, in ways that we have not seen in years, Nick. And here is something interesting that I guess we just learned in the last several minutes.

Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov says he is unaware of progressions whereabouts. If he is on his way to Belarus, should the Kremlin know that by now?

WALSH: Yes, it was a funny admission to make. Dmitry Peskov laying out this sort of detailed solution to a chaotic day sounding so in control. Prigozhin will go to Belarus. His fighters can join the Ministry of Defense essentially, everything really that the Kremlin has wanted from their long spats with Prigozhin and the top brass coming to a realization, but this admission, they don't actually know where Prigozhin is indeed.

Now, we think we do know because Russian state media have shown him departing Rostov in a baseball cap in the back of that SUV. I think we have some of that video available.

[18:05:09]

We don't quite know when that was exactly and where he was headed. But it's a hole possibly in the plan. And I think we haven't heard now from Yevgeny Prigozhin since he said he was turning his fighters around on the way to Moscow. He has not responded to the idea that he's going to spend the rest of his days in Belarus -- a lot of information that we're missing here.

And I think, too, an interesting moment of Vladimir Putin, who now essentially has to say that the man who said he'd probably kick him out of power, Yevgeny Prigozhin, well, all is forgiven. He's fine, and let's just move on with things.

Important to remember, Jim, though, this is going to have an impact on Ukraine's frontlines. Wagner troops are vital to that fight. Clearly, many of them moved and relocated, and you cannot doubt this is having an impact on Russian morale to some degree.

In the last 24 hours, it has frankly been unclear who is running the country, let alone the war -- utter chaos -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Absolutely extraordinary, and the Ukrainians must be sensing an opportunity right now.

Nick Paton Walsh, great reporting, as always. Thanks so much.

For more analysis on this, let's turn to Ian Bremmer, the founder and president of Eurasia Group and G Zero Media.

Ian, what do you make of all of this? There is a lot to talk about here.

I mean, the fact that the Kremlin admitted they don't know where Prigozhin is right now, put that to the side for a second, but let's talk about Putin's grip on power.

Have you seen this kind of weakness shown by Putin in some time now? What do you make of that? It's just a remarkable turn of events today.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP AND G ZERO MEDIA: Oh, it is deeply embarrassing for Putin. You saw that not only was Prigozhin directly insubordinate in the last week, when first the Minister of Defense and then Putin himself said that we demand that all of these paramilitary troops have to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Kadyrov with the Chechen paramilitary immediately said yes; Prigozhin said no. You don't get to say no to the Russian president. I don't care how many successes you have on the ground in Ukraine. So it was clear that things were coming to a head.

And Prigozhin had a serious problem, right? Because if he had said yes after all of the fight he was having with the Ministry of Defense, and was going to let his troops essentially sign contracts, and then report up to them, he loses his influence on the ground. If he refuses to do that, then he is insubordinate with Putin. Either way, he is sort of holding on by a thread.

So basically, in a corner, he rolls the dice and says, I'm going all in, I'm attacking Moscow.

Well, he got to Rostov. He got to Voronezh and then he stopped. Did he lose his nerve? Did he not have any influence in Moscow? Did he recognize that he was going to lose and people that he thought was going to go with him didn't? We don't know any of those things.

But what we know is he embarrassed Putin. He made Putin look weak in front of his own population. And as a consequence, this deal, which is, as you say, the Kremlin getting most of what they want, what they want, is not a traitor, to the Russian nation, and to Putin, who Putin himself actually created in power, going free.

So it is very hard to imagine that Prigozhin is going to be comfortable and with us for very much longer.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Putin has gone from labeling Prigozhin essentially a traitor and saying that Prigozhin and the rest of Wagner will be punished to allowing Prigozhin to leave Belarus. I mean, that is not the -- that is not exactly the image of Putin shirtless on the back of a tiger, that's more like the emperor has no clothes.

BREMMER: Yes. I mean, you can understand why Putin would have done that in the moment, because if he starts a big military fight, and no deal with Prigozhin, well, then he is going to need troops for that fight. He is going to have to pull back from the frontlines in Ukraine, that's enormously embarrassing for him.

Maybe he is concerned that not everyone is going to actually stand up and fight. Maybe he thinks that some of his own soldiers might have laid down their arms, he looks even worse on the ground in Moscow.

So I can see reasons why Putin decides I'm going to give this guy the ability to go to Belarus, he is going to embarrass me. I'll live to fight another day. That does not strike me as a place where they're going to hug it out. Right?

I mean, Putin absolutely has been wounded by this man, by this man who the Russians have lionized on state media over the past six months. You go around the country, you'll see billboards supporting Prigozhin

and Wagner because they are the ones actually making wins on the ground in Ukraine. And then suddenly, Putin goes on national television and says this man is a traitor and he will be liquidated and Wagner will be liquidated.

Remember in the last 24 hours, Russian Special Forces actually raided the head orders of Wagner in St Petersburg. They were putting out photos of the drugs and the guns and the hundred dollar bills and gold that they found in Prigozhin's stash.

[18:10:11]

I mean, this guy was for all intents and purposes, enemy number one for Vladimir Putin and now suddenly, everything is okay. There is no way in God's green earth that is the case.

ACOSTA: And how does Putin go about prosecuting this war in Ukraine without Wagner? Without Prigozhin?

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was quick to criticize Vladimir Putin saying, Russia's weakness has been exposed and accused Putin of going into hiding, which we don't know whether or not that's true or not, but he accused of Putin of going into hiding.

How do you see this affecting the war in Ukraine?

BREMMER: Well, as you say, part of the deal that was announced by Peskov, Putin's spokesperson was that all of these troops, the Wagner troops are now signing contracts with the Russian MoD, the Ministry of Defense, which means that they're going to be fighting underneath Mr. Shoigu and Gerasimov, unless they're removed, and there is no sign that that happening right now.

Now, will the Wagner troops actually fight effectively underneath the Ministry of Defense given the enormous criticism, the corruption, the lack of capacity that they've shown in the field over the last six months? I don't know.

We know the Kadyrov who said he was going back to Russia to fight against Wagner now can stay in Ukraine. So I mean, the Russians still have the troops. They have been putting up a good defensive fight against the Ukrainians in the last few weeks since the counteroffensive has started, it hasn't gone as well for the Ukrainians, as many in the west and NATO had anticipated.

But definitely the Russians are going to look weaker in their capacity to continue to fight on the ground in Ukraine as a consequence of what we've seen over the last 24 hours.

And if that means that the Ukrainians are able to threaten some of Putin's self-announced red lines, Crimea's territorial integrity, the land bridge that the Russians control, well, I mean, then the potential for Putin to do something truly desperate goes up.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. All right, Ian Bremmer, always great to get your insights. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.

BREMMER: Sure. My pleasure.

ACOSTA: CNN's Jeremy Diamond is following the White House response for us over at the White House.

Jeremy, our sources tell us the US and its allies were caught off guard by how fast all of this escalated. We know the president and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan at Camp David this weekend. What are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim and President Biden, I'm told has been briefed regularly throughout the day today as we've been watching and monitoring these fast-moving developments.

Keep in mind, US intelligence officials are also seeing so much of this open source intelligence that is filtering on the internet, but they are also of course monitoring what intelligence agencies are actively gathering.

Now, even as there is this apparent deal to stand down this armed insurrection inside of Russia, the White House is continuing to actively monitor this situation.

As you mentioned, President Biden, he is at Camp David and in a sign of just how seriously the White House was taking these activities inside of Russia, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, canceling a planned trip to Denmark, traveling instead with the president at Camp David.

We know that the president this morning, he spoke with several key NATO allies and other top US officials. Everyone from the Defense secretary to the secretary of State to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff have been speaking regularly with US allies throughout the day.

And as you mentioned, Jim, US officials, you know, they were caught off guard by the speed with which Prigozhin moved against the Russian military here, but that being said, US officials have long been monitoring these tensions between the Wagner Group and the Russian Ministry of Defense and they were monitoring in recent days that Prigozhin was perhaps preparing to make some kind of a move. But again, caught off guard by the speed of this.

So many unanswered questions though still remain and in speaking with officials today, it is clear that the US is still trying to gather information about what exactly happened to end this armed standoff and what exactly the implications will be going forward -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, the whole world was caught off guard including Vladimir Putin.

All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much.

CNN is working all of the angles on this developing situation as the head of the Wagner Group says he is ordering his troops to turn back from their march toward Moscow. It's a very puzzling development. We'll examine what that means and what might happen next with CNN chief diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, and retired General Mark Hertling, they are with us in just a few moments.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:41]

ACOSTA: Welcome back.

We're following developments out of Russia as the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin says he is calling off his troops from their march toward Moscow. That announcement coming just hours after what appeared to be a coup attempt against Russia's leadership.

Joining me now is CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson and CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

Nic, let me start with you. This happened so quickly. It caught everybody around the world off guard, and then it turned out that it just wasn't what we all thought it was going to be in the end, a march into Moscow, into the capital city of Russia, it just didn't happen. They turned around very quickly.

What do you make of all of this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Look when Prigozhin holed up in Rostov-on-Don, it was clear that he had found a hole, a space, a base that he knew Putin was going to find it hard to attack, by sending a small contingent to Moscow, who were they going to attack? What were they going to attack? Who thought they would ever get through the security of Moscow? That always felt like a piece of theater.

Prigozhin has always been good at kind of like just appearing out of nowhere. He has got his video of him with his dead soldiers by him, complaining that the military hadn't been giving them enough ammunition when he was in Bakhmut, and then it was surged up and frothed up and then just disappeared.

This feels like the same on a much bigger scale and he made Putin come out, take a side, accused him of insurrection, of treason.

[18:20:08]

So this was massive on any scale, but there was always an element, it felt like of not staging, but theater and it is not clear at the moment what Prigozhin has got out of this.

What's happened to the Defense chief, Sergei Shoigu; the Defense minister; Valery Gerasimov, the chief-of-staff, who Prigozhin has been criticizing so heavily recently, we don't know. But what is clear in this is that Putin comes out of this weaker. Remember, just a few years ago, Putin was the guy who can make and

break oligarchs, who controlled and was a center of power and influence in Russia. He was the guy who was such a good strategist, he could predict and plan anything, and he totally failed with the invasion of Ukraine, and it has been failing since.

And now, he is the president that has been able to bring an insurrection onto his own streets, and he hasn't solved it, and the prime culprit who earlier today Putin was saying, should be held responsible is getting off apparently, relatively scot-free.

None of it adds up. There is much more to know, but it points to a weakened Putin.

ACOSTA: General Hertling, it is very shadowy, as things often can be when you're talking about the Russians. What was Prigozhin thinking here, do you think? I mean, first, they were on their way to the Russian capital, and then they weren't? Do you think he thought, you know that he would perhaps pick up some support along the way, and it just didn't happen?

I mean, they were cheering him in Rostov. I mean, what happened here?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You know, Jim, I'm going to go a different track, if you don't mind. This is fascinating to me. I've been struggling with this all day long, because, you know, Prigozhin is a mercenary leader. He's an oligarch. He has all of these characteristics.

We thought this was going to be a potential for a coup, but then I kind of hit the books this afternoon and I realized that's -- the reason we're having trouble describing this is this is a throwback to previous centuries.

In a modern day state like Russia, alleged modern day state, what we have is a warlord. He is defined as someone who is accountable to no one, who has no ideology, who rules by patronage. He flourishes when a central government is extremely weak and that describes Russia right now, and he further fragments politics, military actions, and economics. That's what a warlord does.

So what we have is a 21st century warlord and it is just confusing all of us, because he's just acting on his own. He's a free floating electron in a time bomb and he is causing all kinds of trouble. And further weakening, as Nic just said, Mr. Putin and the Russian state. That's what happens when you get these kinds of characters as part of what should be a military that serves the nation.

ACOSTA: And, Nic, I mean, talking about things not really adding up. The Kremlin says criminal charges against Prigozhin will be dropped after he was described, essentially, as a traitor, just less than 24 hours ago, and that he goes to neighboring Belarus.

I mean, how does that add up? You know, one has to think that he is going to need somebody to taste, you know, his soup. He's going to need some kind of royal taster from here on out for -- and stay away from any nearby windows on high floors.

I mean, I just can't imagine why he would think he could get out of this situation, and not worry about his general well-being from here on out.

ROBERTSON: Well, he has still got a lot of his own supporters still in the fight in Ukraine. So, I think he still has a lot of leverage and he is not done and is not out of the game. And yes, anyone who tangles with Putin, and there have been plenty of them, need to look over their shoulder and he will be aware of that.

But I want to pick up on something Mark said, because it's so -- I mean, Mark is always right. Mark is so right talking about a throwback to a warlord, you know, going back maybe to the 15th century. That is what Russia is. That's how the political, economic, military system runs in Russia.

You have a central source of power, Putin, who doles out areas of responsibility and ways to make money to the oligarchs, and he is at the center of it, controlling it.

I think what we're -- and this is a centuries old system. Russia hasn't entered the 21st century in economic and power turns. It's an autocracy; worse, it's a dictatorship. So absolutely spot on there.

But to the point of Prigozhin living safely in Belarus, I'm not sure that Lukashenko himself even feel safe there. Lukashenko is on shaky ground. He has been sort of become more and more in hock to Putin over recent years, Putin bailing him out of the fraudulent elections a couple of years ago, mass arrests of people on the streets.

[18:25:08]

Perhaps Prigozhin provides Lukashenko with a counterweight to Putin's influence. What we're witnessing here and it will be easier to see when we look back in a year is the breakup of a system that's been in place for a long time.

Lukashenko has been in power. He is way past this for decades. He is way past the sell by date, propped up by Putin, who can barely prop himself up now. We just don't know the contours of all of the deal here.

ACOSTA: And General Hertling, what is the future of the Wagner Group after what has happened over the last 24 hours? I mean, they were doing the most damage for the Russians in Ukraine. Can they go back to fighting alongside the Russian military after this? And what does Putin do without Wagner if he can't count on them down the road in Ukraine? That sounds like an opportunity for Ukraine.

HERTLING: Yes, it is going to be difficult, I think from a professional soldier standpoint for them to go back fighting alongside fellow Russian soldiers. And here's why, Jim, for a couple of reasons.

They engaged gunfire today with the Russian military. They shot down multiple aircrafts. They killed a bunch of pilots flying helicopters and jets.

So when you when you devolve that trust, when you don't have trust between brothers in arms, you're going to fail. There has been a bunch of losers in today's actions and I would suggest Putin is one, Shoigu is one because he's been undercut, certainly Gerasimov to a degree, the chief of the Russian forces, and Prigozhin is a big loser.

Now he, he may or may not have to taste the soup or stay away from windows, I don't know, because he does have that charismatic background, but all of the individuals who are his fighters are now going to become, we would call them super vet bros. They are going to think they're now larger than life, and they are going to be hated by their fellow soldiers.

They may get some charisma from the local population as we saw Prigozhin Rostov-on-Don and getting the cheers and everything, but he is not to be trusted.

And Putin is now the biggest failure in all of this because he is caught between a dog and a fire hydrant of supporting Prigozhin or supporting Shoigu, his minister of Defense, while continuous actions are occurring on the battlefield and things just keep getting worse for the Russian republic or the Russian Federation and the Russian military.

There are more and more things happening that are just making it tougher for them to exist on the modern battlefield inside of Ukraine.

ACOSTA: All right, Nic Robertson and Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thank you gentlemen, to both of you, really appreciate the insights as always. We'll talk to you soon.

The immediate threat of an insurrection may be over for now, but the world is watching closely to see what will happen next in Russia.

Ahead, the latest on what Washington is saying and a closer look at infighting inside the Kremlin.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:19]

ACOSTA: It has been an extraordinary day in Russia with an insurrection apparently suddenly called off with much of the world watching military columns of the mercenary group, Wagner Group abruptly halted their advance on Moscow. Wagner forces claimed to capture key military facilities in two Russian cities in advance about halfway to Moscow before turning back.

Wagner's chief who has been an increasingly strident critic of Russia's military leadership says he wanted to avoid bloodshed. But Russia says Yevgeny Prigozhin will not be prosecuted and will live in Belarus whose leader is closely aligned with Putin and brokered a deal. Now to CNN's Kylie Atwood at the State Department.

Kylie, although these events caught most of the world off guard, including Vladimir Putin, we should note, Western allies were quick to reaffirm their support for Ukraine. This does, I guess, leave a precarious diplomatic situation with a major world power. I - how are the allies dealing with Russia right now? How are they perceiving this whole situation?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, incredibly precarious indeed, Jim. And I think it's important to note that it has been a precarious situation with Russia for more than a year now, particularly because of the war in Ukraine.

But we should note that Russia has nuclear capability. So U.S. officials are always concerned about a situation on the battlefield that could escalate and lead President Putin to feel like he needs to use that capability, because it's something that he has threatened before.

Now, this is a situation, of course, that is happening internally, with this power struggle between Prigozhin, the Wagner forces and the Russian ministry of defense. But you do have to consider that reality here. And when it comes to what U.S. officials are doing, they're being incredibly cautious here. On the record, they're not saying much.

Of course, we know behind the scenes that they are tracking this so closely, President Biden has been tracking it from Camp David throughout the day with his National Security adviser. But when it comes to what U.S. officials are saying, it's that they're closely coordinating with allies and partners.

And we know the Secretary of State, Blinken, has called his G7 allies. He's also made calls to the top EU foreign official and also Turkey and Ukraine, the foreign ministers there, his counterparts there, reiterating that U.S. support for Ukraine, as you said, Jim, is steadfast.

And the thing that we'll be watching for tomorrow is the Secretary of State is actually going on a number of Sunday shows including CNN. And that will be, if we don't hear from the administration between now and then the first time that we have a real reaction from a top Biden administration official. Jim?

[18:35:05]

ACOSTA: Yes, you have to think the Secretary of State was going to be on those Sunday shows and he will be including right here on CNN. Kylie Atwood, thank you very much.

Wagner head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as Putin chef has a long history with Russia's president rising to prominence by winning lucrative contracts with the Kremlin. But he's one of Russia's most elusive oligarchs.

CNN international - Senior International Correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, joins me now from Berlin.

Fred, you've been looking into exactly who Prigozhin is. For a lot of folks here in the United States who may not be familiar with Prigozhin, who is he and why - what do you have to say about this extraordinary sequence of events that we've seen over the last 24 hours is just incredible?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, I think you're absolutely right, Jim, to say that elusive at least for the large part of his career is definitely absolutely correct when describing Yevgeny Prigozhin. In fact, things started pretty bad for him.

He was in jail, actually, in the Soviet Union in the 1980s and then started off really small selling hotdogs in St. Petersburg, in the '90s. And then he started founding this catering company and that's when he became known as you put it, as Putin's chef.

And that's when things really went up for Yevgeny Prigozhin. He then later founded a media company which, of course, gained massive notoriety in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, where the U.S. says that that company meddled heavily in that election. Of course, Yevgeny Prigozhin was indicted for that.

But if we look at the Wagner private military company, that certainly is an organization that we've seen in the battlefield and really across the world over the past couple of years. For instance, I was in Syria in 2016 and 2017, and we already saw Wagner operatives on the ground there at that point doing mostly base protection.

But from there, it really professionalized in a big way. They started getting involved in the oil trade. They started going into diamonds and gold in African countries training forces there. But it really wasn't until the war here in Ukraine, I think that the Wagner private military company turned from being essentially a military company to being a full on army.

You saw some of the battles in Bakhmut where I was on the receiving end of a barrage of mortars there once. And the heavy weapons use really was something that expanded. And so if you look at what's been going on now. If you look at the few that's going on between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the defense minister Sergei Shoigu, that's where that really built up where Yevgeny Prigozhin kept saying, look, Wagner is winning on the battlefield where the Russian military isn't, but then also accusing Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister of essentially starving Wagner of the weapons that they needed to win in places like Bakhmut.

So it's a feud that's been going on for a very long time and really came to a head today and it looks as though Yevgeny Prigozhin for all the backing that he had from Vladimir Putin for being so close to Vladimir Putin, certainly it looks as though he went one step too far this time, Jim.

ACOSTA: It certainly looks that way. And we don't know what happens next for Prigozhin. He said to be on his way to Belarus, but the Kremlin just admitted not too long ago, they don't exactly know his whereabouts. So this shadowy mystery surrounding Prigozhin and what he's up to continues.

Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

After the march to Moscow suddenly ends, the head of the Wagner Group is said to be moving to Belarus. So what does that mean for his group's role in the war in Ukraine? We'll discuss it with retired U.S. Army Colonel Yevgeny Vindman, that's next. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:37]

ACOSTA: Some stunning new videos showing Wagner Group forces amid cheers withdrawing from their positions at Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the pullout comes hours after Wagner claimed it had taken control of the area. It was part of the mercenary group's march toward Moscow that seemed to be the start of a military coup.

But now, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is reportedly heading to Belarus and he says his troops are returning to what he described as field camps.

I want to bring in retired U.S. Army Colonel Eugene Vindman (ph), Director of Military Analysis for the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group. Col. Vindman, great to see you.

I have to say, I mean, don't you think this was probably the biggest threat Vladimir Putin has ever faced and doesn't that threat really continue at this point?

COL. YEVGENY VINDMAN, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, he's certainly very much threatened by Prigozhin. I agree that the threat is not over yet, he's demonstrated that he's weak. He's not a strong leader.

And the consequences for this insurrection, even if it is over, are going to be far ranging. Frankly, there are, by report, seven aircraft that were shot down that security forces in Ukraine will have to be redeployed to secure facilities inside Russia. So Putin is very much a weakened man and dictators that are weak don't tend to last very long.

ACOSTA: Are you surprised that this uprising got as far as it did?

VINDMAN: Um, I guess not really. By many reports, 90 percent - 97 percent of Russian forces were deployed inside of Ukraine. So frankly, there are not many security forces left in Russia. What was left are - were police forces, some federal security services, and some national guard all fairly lightly armored - armed.

So I am not surprised, and frankly, mostly by the good graces of Prigozhin who's a wanted war criminal did Moscow get spared. I'm not sure exactly how this would have ended up if Prigozhin made it all the way to Moscow. [18:45:05]

But I have no doubt, given the lightning speed of his advanced and that he was 200 kilometers from Moscow within just one day of movement that he would have gotten there. And so there was a great deal of risk to the regime.

And frankly, again, it was the good graces of Prigozhin and potentially some leverage that the regime may have - might have had on him. There were some reports of roundups of a Wagner personnel or raids (ph) against Wagner interests. And so it's possible that that had an impact on his thinking and why he ended up folding.

ACOSTA: And do you think that if this is over, Prigozhin just goes off to Belarus now all is forgiven?

VINDMAN: Not by any stretch, Jim. I think Mr. Prigozhin - first of all, he's a war criminal, so the countries where he can travel are very much reduced. He's no longer welcome to Russia. I don't know if he plans to spend his entire life in Belarus, but I suspect he does not want to. And when he starts traveling or trying - attempt to travel to Africa, there are going to be very few countries is where he will be able to take refuge.

And so I don't anticipate that this is over by a long shot. I think that he might have some respite. But he and frankly other Wagner insurgents and Russian armed forces that either stayed on the sidelines or supported Prigozhin, there's probably a purge that is likely to happen in the short term.

ACOSTA: And what does the future of Russia's war in Ukraine look like without Prigozhin and his mercenaries, because they were - weren't they making some of the most effective gains if you want to describe it that way on behalf of Russia?

VINDMAN: That's true, Jim. They were one of the more effective fighting forces. They, to the extent that there was any victory in Bakhmut, it was largely due to the efforts of Wagner forces. And they demonstrated, frankly, their effectiveness in the way they moved from Ukraine, about a thousand kilometers or so into Russia.

They're the most effective fighting force, so taking them off the battlefield is going to have some impact undoubtedly, the loss of the aircraft is going to have an impact. The need for Russians to redeploy is going to have an impact

Undoubtedly, the motivation of Russian troops that remain in Ukraine, who now don't know what they're fighting for, they're certainly not fighting for a stable government. All of these factors are going to have an impact on the battlefield.

I will say one thing that does concern me is that the last 24 hours were probably a pretty good scare for a lot of capitals, including Washington and policymakers. They saw the potential collapse of Russia and thought about the impact of loose nukes. And so I fear that there may be rejoicing, which sounds odd that Putin

was - remain - was able to stay in power and that the country did not collapse. But I think that's the wrong message. I think we should be frankly disappointed that two war criminals, Prigozhin and Putin didn't battle it out and further weaken, and further the collapse of this terrible criminal regime.

ACOSTA: All right. Col. Vindman, I have a feeling we're going to be talking about this even more in the days to come. I really appreciate the time. Thanks so much, we'll be right back.

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[18:53:15]

ACOSTA: The military uprising by the Wagner Group mercenaries appears to have been the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin's rule since he came to power more than two decades ago. Perhaps no one was watching more closely than war torn Ukraine.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman joins us from inside the war zone in Ukraine.

Ben, how are Ukrainian officials reacting to these latest developments? Do they sense some kind of opportunity now?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly they were very optimistic a few hours ago, but when this announcement came out that Prigozhin had agreed to stop his march on Moscow and returned to base, there was a palpable sense of disappointment.

Now, the Ukrainians have announced that in the area of Bakhmut, they have made some gains in a series of offensives there. Of course, that city is now under Russian occupation. But by and large, perhaps that moment has passed.

We did get a statement from Mykhailo Podolyak who's an adviser to the Ukrainian president, who said that Prigozhin almost nullified Putin. He said that he humiliated the Russian president and the state and showed that there's no longer a monopoly on violence.

Now, the Ukrainians have insisted for quite some time that they have yet to commit the bulk of their forces to the counter offensive that began about two weeks ago. And certainly what we saw yesterday, Jim, when we were in a frontline area in southern Ukraine is that there are a lot of troops, a lot of equipment, a lot of Western supplied a weapon systems that are poised to go into action.

[18:55:07]

Now, today was just this very strange, long day in which there was a roller coaster of expectations here. But at the end of the day, nothing's really changed. Of course, the Russian state President Putin appears to have been wounded to a certain extent, his prestige has been on the line all day long. But at the end of the day, things are sort of returning to what passes

for normal in Russia and perhaps the Ukrainians have to come to face the fact that the situation they faced before this 24 hours of crisis in Moscow has gone back to what it was before and the challenges are still there.

We spoke to some troops on the front line around Bakhmut and they told us that they didn't see any effect of the chaos and disorder in the Kremlin being played out among Russian forces. They were continuing to resist it and Ukrainian attempts to gain ground in that area. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. Ben Wedeman, after a long day of excellent reporting for us, thanks very much. Once again, we greatly appreciate it and we'll be right back in a moment.

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