The more
my guys will
not be taking
useless, unjustified losses in Bermuda
without ammunition.
So on May 10th, 20, 23
we are pulling out of modes
Prigozhin is also vowing to make sure
Putin's top
defense officials
take the fall
for the tens of thousands of men killed
and what he called a, quote, heavy,
merciless bloody war.
And he isn't the only one lashing out.
You're looking right here
at a summit in Turkey.
Just watch as a Russian delegate
stormed over to the Ukrainian delegate
and takes his flag.
Wow.
The scuffle, of course,
nothing compared
with the ongoing
bloodshed on the ground in Ukraine.
Nic Robertson is OUTFRONT
tonight and eastern Ukraine
but they're there with furniture corner.
After they're buying,
you believe you would get
your crops two years
you move here.
But Russia's
top nursery is turning on Moscow again
with a vengeance.
Got the rainy day youth, no wagon.
The boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin,
screaming at President Putin's
defense minister
and army chief of staff,
accusing them of killing US
troops in back mud
by starving them of ammunition.
This is we are pulling out of West means.
We have only two or so
kilometers left to capture
out of 45 hours later an ultimatum
send ammo
or it'll pull his troops out of back mud
just as they are close to taking it
from concrete.
Also troubling for the Kremlin,
Prigozhin hired
Mikhail Medicine
Seth as a white deputy commander
until last week,
he was Russia's deputy defense minister.
It hints at a pending Wagner
Kremlin showdown.
Ukraine's military
spokesman says Back Mount
could be at a turning point
if Russia doesn't fix
its ammunitions supply problem.
He also says that Prigozhin cannot afford
to continue losing troops at this rate.
If he does,
the spokesman says
Wagner will be destroyed.
Precaution, he says, has no option but to
pull out.
Precautions, machinations
having no impact
on the fighting around the devastated
city. Friday.
Both sides
still feeding men into the front lines
known as Ukraine's meat grinder.
And the fighting
not just on the battlefield.
In Turkey,
a Russian diplomat rips down
the Ukrainian flag
but is quickly
punched at a parliamentary
assembly intended
to get both sides to agree.
An extension to the U.N.
brokered Black Sea green deal.
Two years, right.
Russia's diplomats
also hitting out at the United States.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov
announcing the US and Russia
are on the verge of open armed conflict,
a further escalation
of recent
unsubstantiated Kremlin rhetoric claiming
the United States directed Ukraine to fly
drones over the Kremlin
in an attempt
to assassinate President Putin.
An allegation
both Kiev and Washington
Katz to correctly deny
And tonight, there are early
indications that perhaps
Ukraine's counteroffensive
is getting close.
And the Russian controlled part of
Zafer is here oblast region.
The Russian controlled area
is beginning
to bust civilians out of towns
that they say
are seeing increased levels of
heavy shelling.
That is an area
where Russia is concerned
about the possibility
of a counteroffensive.
And busing
people out
is exactly what the Russians did
in her son last year
just before the Ukrainians advance
in that area.
Many of those civilians
ending up being taken to Russia
Nic Robertson, thank you so much.
That is telling.
OUTFRONT now,
former director of national intelligence
and retired U.S.
Air Force Lieutenant General
James Clapper.
So you just heard from that report,
this ultimatum issued by Wagner
boss Prigozhin
send ammunition
or he is withdrawing his troops
from back mount by May 10th.
Does it surprise you
that a private army
would issue
an ultimatum like this
to the actual military in Russia?
Well, Pamela,
to me, this
is emblematic of the disarray of this
this whole operation.
Here you have a private army,
not responsive able
or responsive
necessarily to the
Russian minister of defense,
laying down an ultimatum
to to pull out unless he gets a
appropriate allocation of ammunition.
I mean, you can sympathize with him,
but to me, this is
is so characterized
sick of the disarray here where
one of the most effective fighting forces
and this is a roll of the term,
a relative characterization of Russia
as a private army.
It's not even
the official armed forces of Russia.
So for him to do this and do it publicly,
I suspect
this sort of thing has been bubbling up
privately for some time.
But for him to do it
publicly is a pretty bold thing.
I would
think he will avoid
going above
the second story in any building and,
you know, stay away from Windows.
So it's quite remarkable
that he would speak publicly.
And so critically.
Yeah, he you
you mean he was a key Putin ally?
Right. And for him to speak up public like this,
criticizing Russia.
It really is striking
And it makes you wonder
whether Putin could win this war
without the help of other troops.
What do you think
Well, I think he's he's in
a bad place anyway
in terms of winning the war.
I think
there are many to think
he's already lost it.
There's a shortfall in manpower,
whether there are in a private army
like Wagner's GRU,
the Wagner Group, or the Russian military
They are just
going to run out of people, manpower
at the rate
they are killing their their own troops.
By subjecting them
to essentially a meat grinder.
So this is just, again,
so emblematic of the whole of the failure
of the whole Russian effort.
And then there is
these mysterious
drone attacks on the Kremlin.
And I spoke yesterday
with an exiled Russian lawmaker
who told me that
the drones were
the work of Russian Partizans.
He says he knows them
and he has spoken directly with them.
Here's what else he said.
What's happening in Moscow?
For sure,
it's not Ukrainians
and it's out of reach.
The reason why
anti-missile defense of Russia did not
intercept those drones were
because those drones were launched
right next to Moscow.
Do you agree with that assessment?
That the drones were launched
by Russian Partizans?
Well, it's certainly a plausible thesis,
but there's another one I think also is
at least as equally plausible,
which is this
could have been contrived
by the Russian intelligence services
intentionally for a variety of purposes
as justification for doing something,
again, more serious against Ukraine
to garner domestic support or whatever.
So, yeah, it could be Russian dissidents
or it could be the Russians themselves
as part of a dissent formation effort.
This is a hall of mirrors kind of thing.
Yeah.
But then, you know,
you wonder, wouldn't
this be embarrassing for Putin
because he prides himself on security and
being protected.
So it's certainly still a mystery,
but interesting to hear your perspective
and your analysis on this.
Director Clapper, thanks so much.
Thanks.