group has been pictured by reuters news agency apparently leaving the city of rostov on don, which his fighters took control of earlier today. reuters says yevgeny prigozhin was driving away from the district military headquarters in the city. asi as i said, that is the first city that his fighters took, which he proudly proclaimed they were able to do without firing a single shot. it the last hour or so, we have had the governor from that region confirming that the wagner fighters have packed up that the wagner fighters have packed up and left. that photo from the reuters news agency of yevgeny prigozhin leaving the area. joining us from washington is andrew d anieri, assistant director at the atlantic council s eurasia centre. we did get some comments earlier on from the white house about how they were communicating with our allies and partners. what willjoe biden s administration be looking for in the
most people will be watching. what you think this could most people will be watching. what you think this could mean for ukrainian s counteroffensive on the battlefield? i ukrainian s counteroffensive on the battlefield? , ., , , battlefield? i believe that this is an opportunity battlefield? i believe that this is an opportunity for battlefield? i believe that this is an opportunity for them - battlefield? i believe that this is an opportunity for them an - an opportunity for them an opportunity for two fronts my mind. go back to the distrust and also going back to the lack of morale and the lack of teamwork between the russian forces and ukrainians need to exploit that and the information space as well as on the battlefield. we know if there russians out there, we do not understand why they are fighting and they don t want to be fighting and they don t want to be fighting their cousins and their uncles and their relatives in ukraine and also taking this opportunity to exploit t
their whole outlook and he was posting the body sent thousands of trips to the bed of moscow, they re very critical of the russian generals and more troubles that were not there before. what do you think prigozhin s motive was here. what was he looking to achieve? i think he was trying to make a grab for power and at the very least, she wanted to use the takeover of rostov on don as some kind of a bargaining chip to remove others and guarantee his autonomy over military operations on the ground of ukraine and maybe he downsized the ambitions and maybe he downsized the ambitions a bit when he was concerned that maybe it wouldn t succeed as moscow and others didn t come to his side and others didn t come to his side and that he could be arrested for treason and spend the rest of his life in jail treason and spend the rest of his life injail would be killed in this
entered after leaving russian occupied territory in ukraine. this march north unravelled over a 24 hour period, and it seemed from an outsider s perspective that it was all happening pretty quickly, thenit was all happening pretty quickly, then it seemed to come crumbling down, we have had information from belarus s president s offers that he spoke to president putin and the wagner leader, and troops were doing an about turn, and the kremlin has now said yevgeny prigozhin of will move to belarus, he was missing for much of the day. we will keep you updated with all the latest hero bbc news. this is bbc news. the headlines. wagner mercenary fighters withdraw from the city of rostov after their leader orders them to return to their bases, in order to avoid bloodshed. the fighters are met
says, no, to camp, we ve done a deal. that s the situation tonight. many thanks. we ll catch up again later. let s take a closer look at the man who called for the rebellion, yevgeny prigozhin, and the group of mercenary soldiers he leads, known as the wagner group. our security correspondent, gordon corera, has more details. yevgeny prigozhin outside russian military headquarters in rostov on don this morning, boasting his wagner group have taken it without firing a shot. butjust who is this man challenging russia s leaders? prigozhin began as a criminal from st petersburg. after leaving jail, he began selling hotdogs but then graduated to running expensive restaurants. he caught the attention of russia s leader, leading him to be known as putin s chef. he catered to world leaders when they visited, even america s president, but also became rich from lucrative military contracts.