wagner fighters have left the southern city of rostov, where they took control early saturday. all road restrictions have now been lifted. the mercenaries have been told they will not be prosecuted and will be allowed to join the russian army. there have been reports of an explosion overnight near the ukrainian city of zaporizhzhia. it is the site of europe s largest nuclear power plant. the ukrainian army has launched a counter offensive in the area to take back the territory the russians captured last year. now on bbc news, click.
you brought us the news literally as it was coming across the proverbial wire of the top of the last hour. what are we learning this hour? so, nicole, in the last few minutes russian state media out with a new report. they are saying yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of the wagner mercenary group, has left. left this military headquarters in this southern city of rostov, which he seized in the early hours of this morning. he s been holed up in that building over the course of the day, surrounded by rings of heavily armed mercenaries. that is the location that he s been carrying out these negotiations, as his forces went north up the m4 towards moscow. russian state media reporting that he has now left that building. we don t know where he s going, but this came about 40 minutes or so after the kremlin spokesman dimitri peskov gave us our first glimpse into the details of the deal that appear, again appear nicole, to have
here, but it is not clear what exactly prigozhin has achieved over the course of this armed rebellion. the kremlin appears to be giving him a weight out of the mess he s created, but it does not appear that he has got much in terms of his initial demands. ralph, what do we know about where production is right now? do we believe he s still in russia? or is it possible that he is making his way to belarus? so just in terms of geography, if he did indeed leave this military headquarters and roscoe in the last hour or so, he would still be inside russia. we don t know how immediate this deal comes into effect. but you have to assume that the kremlin is not going to tolerate him hanging around. one of the things that is really worrying for vladimir putin is at least in the streets of rostov, prigozhin seems to have had kind of a heroes welcome. there were crowds chanting
in recent weeks he had been growing even more outspoken, increasingly seeming to challenge notjust the military but also vladimir putin, bringing what had been a simmering crisis to the boil. as we have heard in the last half hour, we have seen photographs of yevgeny prigozhin leaving rostov on don, the first city that he and his wagner forces took earlier on in the day, without firing a single shot. it has been quite the 24 hours. to stick with us here on bbc news. let s ta ke let s take a look on the geography surrounding all of this and how the developments of twisted and turned throughout the day. yasmin khatun dewan is at our newsroom. it really has been a day of twists
then another casualty arrives from the front. 56 year old alexander. more shrapnel. and yet, as heavy as the fighting still is, there is renewed hope here that a demoralised, divided russian enemy may be in big trouble and that putin s warjust might have reached a turning point. trouble and that putin s warjust might have reached a turning point. lets ta ke lets take a look at the man right at the centre of this. yevgeny prigozhin. he is the commander of the wagner mercenary group, who led his forces north towards moscow. in the last half hour or so, reuters news agency released these photos of him leaving rostov on don, one of the southern cities they took earlier. this isjust come the southern cities they took earlier. this is just come to us the southern cities they took earlier. this isjust come to us in the last 30 minutes or so. we can turn out to a report from arc