but i think putin, you know what did prigoshin want? prigoshin has said he wants to get rid of the leadership of the military. people like the defense minister, and general garosomov. we don t know whether he got that behind the scenes. we ought to be watching. is he still around, still the defense minister? that would be one. then also, by sticking prigoshin in belarus that doesn t really solve the problem, because prigoshin, you know, is powerful in the sense that he makes a lot of money solving problems for putin around the world. into blood diamonds in africa. providing security in conflict zones, et cetera. so i don t think it s as easy to say good-bye go to belarus and never meet again. he is a threat no matter where
yevgeny prigozhin his own suggestion 125 miles outside the outskirts of the capital city unimpeded, frankly, all that way. catching helicopter on that main highway, suddenly decides to change his mind and then, according to the kremlin now part of a deal where hall agreed to go to exile in belarus and be done with it all without facing prosecution. an utterly baffling turn of events here. vladimir putin began the day angrily denouncing and armed insurrection, blackmail, terrorist methods and now appears to have struck a deal with prigoshin who will essentially, seems, if it s really the case, the kremlin s events will go into effect, now safe in belarus. it will have an impact on russians on the front lines, wagner key fighters there certainly. i have to tell you, wolf, feels like we re missing key facts. like we re missing something in negotiations with prigoshin or something in his calculations. just a long-planned effort go
interesting. one of the things that a u.s. official told our colleague is they think that when prigoshin was talking about there being a dearth of ammunition, they believe that was deliberate deception on his part, because he was actually building up ammunition for this potential aggression which has played out over the course of the last 24 hours. now, of course, what we re watching for now is what the white house, what the state department, is saying. now that there appears to be this de-escalation, this agreement that has been brokered by the president of belarus. we have yet to get a response. of course, u.s. officials are watching this incredibly closely. president biden earlier today traveling from the white house to camp david. he was accompanied by his national security advisor, supp supposed to the traveling in europe but with the president being routinely updated on this crisis. a lot of officials changed plans given that this is
exceptionally frail, and the fact he had to turn, it seems, to the belarusian president aleksandr lukashenko. a man he considers to be a subordinate, order around as a lesser ally to come in and engineer this sort of compromise, that gets prigoshin to stand down, that, in itself, humiliating. i think a lot of the time we like to feel that there s some sort of evidence behind the chaos in russia or the russian state is somehow in control of all the strings controlling a marionette on its stage, i think what we ve seen here is a real sign of splits in the elite we ve known for a while that spilled into the open, quite why we didn t see the wagner group move all the way to the capital. may never know the answer to that. maybe didn t like the idea of people who may not want them to be there without adequate support. may be something else not in our knowledge at the moment and we may learn down the line.
russian regular army units would join him in that. early on, as we were discussing earlier in the day, they noticed that many russian units did not seem to be challenging prigoshin s advance. though not perhaps joining him. at least not challenging him, letting him pass by. what isn t clear is there was a critical mass of other forces joining him in this challenge here, and that could have been influential factor in what we ve seen just in the last couple of hours there. a reversal by prigoshin and his forces and now seeing them leave, head back to their camps, to their bases. very important, indeed. jim sciutto reporting for us. thank you. cnn s ben wedeman also is tracking what s going on and getting reaction from inside ukraine. he s live in zaporizhzhia in the war zone in ukraine and joining us right now. ben what are you learning? what s the situation there? reporter: well, i must say, wolf, it has ban longeen a long