jon: it is perhaps the most serious challenge to the vladimir putin s authority, although at this moment it appears the challenge has edged. yevgeny prigozhin has turned his forces around and is said to be heading back to belarus. let s check in with our greg palkot who s covering the story from that part of the world. greg. reporter: jon, it looks like we re back on the brink in russia just across the border from where we are right now in kyiv, but it also looks like a lot of damage was done. it was the biggest risk to russian president vladimir putin s more than two decades of rule, attempted coup, an armed uprising. the man responsible, evgeni pregoes telephone, complaining friday about the war, then pulling his fighters out of ukraine and into the russian city of rostov-on-don with where, with little trouble, they took over the place. and, yes, prigozhin sent forces towards moscow, within 120 miles, the kremlin bracing for an attack, vladimir putin branding the actions
this after president putin promised decisive action against what he calls treason. hello, everyone, and welcome to the a special hour of fox news live. i m arthel neville. hi, eric. eric: hello, everyone, i m eric shawn. fast-breaking developments that have a lot of people wondering what is really going on? some say it was a challenge to vladimir putin s decades-long grip on power. the head of the wagner group, a longtime kremlin ally, of course, but he s been increasingly recently critical of russia s military in recent weeks. he has said his forces seized key russian facilities near the ukrainian border and advanced farther north to other strategic cities, inching closer to moscow. but now those mercenaries holding fast, told to return to their field bases back in ukraine. general jack keane on fox news earlier before the order to the halt that march. and this is a surprise. there s nothing planned about this in terms of russian intelligence i m aware of and its ability
paula reid in for jim acosta. you re in the cnn newsroom we begin this hour with a potential new milestone in russia s war in ukraine. ukraine has announced that it has used a u.s. made patriot air defense system like this to bring down a russian hypersonic missile. if true, it would be the first time ukraine was able to intercept a missile that travels at ten times the speed of sound. cnn s sam kiley joins us from kyiv with the latest. sam, how significant is this? reporter: i think it s very significant indeed, for two reasons. first of all, it s kind of proving the need for highly sophisticated weapons such as the patriot missile that the ukrainians have been asking for effectively since 2014 when they were first invaded by the russians. but then on a technological level, paula, this is a very significant development because patriot was never designed for hypersonic missiles because they didn t exist when patriot was designed. this is a missile that can travel up to te
chief had agreed to the halt the movement of his forces and deescalate tensions in exchange for guaranteed security. and the wagner boss with gave the orders for his troops to return to field camps in ukraine to avoid, yes, the risk of blood being spilled. and we had seen in the last half hour or so signs that just being the forces headed to moscow, also those in rostov, probably a complete withdrawal from russia of the wagner forces in this latest entry. there are also reports, eric, that putin had agreed to some changes in the military top brass. you know, as you noted, that was a big demand of prigozhin, but we have no confirmation of that and no confirmation that these security guarantees a means that prigozhin is off the hook. remember, he was the top of this, he basically invaded russia. there was blood shed, there were russian helicopters and planes down, so there was damage.
reporter: yeah, jon, and up until a couple years ago, the 62-year-old was a relatively quiet figure outside of russia. that all changed with not only the invasion of ukraine, but with what happened toed when prigozhin at one point pointed his troops not only at moscow, but seemingly at russian president vladimir putin. oddly enough, the two grew up in the same russian city, what ises now known as st. petersburg, and they ve known each other for roughly 30 years. he came to prominence by earning lucrative catering contracts with the kremlin which earned him not only a bunch of money, but the nickname of putin s chef. but it wasn t until 2014 is when he became heavily involved this military the efforts. that s when russian will have backed separatetists started becoming more active in the donbas. during that same time, the wagner group was founded serving as a private military group involving a network of mercenaries. he and his forces most recently have played a significant role