small villages. villages is perhaps an overstatement of the kind of communities that are down there. but certainly ukrainians, this is a golden moment, perhaps a game-changer for ukrainians as they are prepared to really carry this counter offensive through. so the ukrainians really are watching what s going on in the kremlin where it seems to be in a situation of chaos to see whether this is really their golden moment to take full advantage of instability among the ranks of the russian military and the political elite as well. kim? ben, beyond the battlefield, is there any sense in ukraine now, any optimism maybe that is correct this might provide some in-seasontive for putin to come to the table for real negotiations? i think coming to the table for putin is at this moment probably not his top priority.
we re seeing, for instance, with prigozhin s mercenaries now in control of rostov, the entire military is up in the air. keep it mind it is ooh the headquarters of the southern military district. it s a strategic command center for russian forces in southern ukraine. with prigozhin in control, it s not at all clear who controls russian forces in southern ukraine and how they re going to respond if ukrainians launch the bulk of their forces against russian lines. now, i can tell you, kim, yesterday we were in an area south of here where we saw a huge number of troops, of western equipment, of logistical support primed to launch a major counteroffensive. what we ve seen until now is fairly small advances by ukrainian forces. they ve taken just eight really
those forces loyal to putin are on the other. that, i think, is where we talk about the prospect of civil war. it gets to that point where you ve got fighting in moscow. i think at that point we re at civilian war. it s a frightening prospect. you talked about support for prigozhin. i mean, what role do you think the oligarchs and elites may be playing behind the scenes? we re talking about the oligarch and the intelligence and security elite. they re watching what s happening with ukraine. they re clearly seeing the writing on the wall that essentially russia is not winning this war and could quite easily lose this war, and if anything, the prigozhin uprising is making a russian defeat more likely because it could open up opportunities for ukrainians to
the situation has riis on the this level. how are those defense chiefs going to respond to putin when prigozhin is out of the picture? you know, putin s own power, his ability to wield power, his ability to have influence over the war on ukraine, those things will be called into question. if you remember to go back to t ukrainians, they retreated. the reason why they retrited is the military got control of the take ticks on the ground from putin and said it didn t make military sense to stay and keep forces over the dnipro river and pulled them all back. so if the military have a stronger say in how the war plays out, this will affect putin, because if putin doesn t achieve his aims in crew krarngs then his term and leadership would seem to be over very quickly. all right, fascinating. nic robertson in london.
modi to side and support the ukrainians in this instance? india would not view ukrainians in this instance? india would not view its ukrainians in this instance? india would not view its role, - ukrainians in this instance? india would not view its role, it - ukrainians in this instance? india would not view its role, it has - would not view its role, it has always been against war and has condemned aggression. however, india has an old relationship with russia dependent about 70% of military dependent about 70% of military dependent on russian. so the way the prime minister modi looks at it, he is condemned war especially with president putin. the united states understands that and the biden administration understands india s compulsions and therefore is not putting pressure on india to change india s current stance on the russia ukraine war. india s current stance on the russia ukraine war- ukraine war. there is a reason they are there in ukraine war. there is a reason they ar