OUTFRONT tonight, Russians on the run.
Just look at these dramatic new pictures.
Literally, they're running.
This is near Bakhmut.
You're looking at what appear
to be Russian forces retreating.
These are about a dozen
or so as they're just running here
along that wooded area,
scrambling to safety.
They're being attacked
in this video from above.
As I said, they are near
the key city of Block Mute.
That's where Putin, of course,
is essentially focused, his entire force
for more than eight months.
And now you see a hasty retreat
like this.
We also have video of Russian heavily
armored vehicles pulling out of the area.
In fact,
the head of Russia's private army,
Yevgeny Prigozhin, is openly claiming
that Putin's forces are losing ground.
It's not just the video
that Prigozhin sang it,
and he's tapping into Putin's generals to
blame them.
Secrets
from the flanks are crumbling.
And the front line is failing a border.
And the defense ministry's attempts
to smooth over the situation.
Somehow in the media space are leading
and will lead
to a global tragedy for Russia.
Flanks are crumbling
and the front line is failing.
And you're hearing that
from the head of Putin's private army,
not the Ukrainian side.
I mean, it is pretty incredible to understand
what's going on here.
In a moment,
we're going to take you
to those front lines,
because this is all coming
as there are more signs
Ukraine's highly anticipated
counteroffensive is about to begin.
Today, massive explosions
rocking the Russian occupied
city of Luhansk.
These pictures here are just after
the stroke is the strike. I'm sorry.
You see the thick black smoke
billowing over Luhansk.
And keep in mind,
this is a city
that has not been under attack
really at all over the past year.
It's been occupied by Russia
and it has been solidly
occupied by Russia.
And it's been too far for Ukraine.
To strike,
which is one of the reasons
why this strike is significant.
First, what did hit in Luhansk?
It hit an important hub
for Russia's military operation.
And second,
what I mentioned,
it is not on the front line.
So it could be Ukraine
showing off
newly acquired missiles
with a longer range.
The missiles, we understand,
may have been launched
from the Kramatorsk area,
which would mean
they traveled about 80 miles.
Just be very clear.
That is a bigger range than any U.S.
missiles that Ukraine has.
But it is within the range
of the so-called storm shadow missiles
that the United Kingdom
just said it's going to send to Ukraine.
Those missiles can go up to 155 miles.
So if they're already in Ukrainian
hands, right. It's not just announcement.
They're going, they're there,
they're ready, they're trained,
they're using them, if that is true.
That puts
all of Russia's occupied areas
within striking distance.
Now, that includes
Crimea, where
Russia, of course,
has dozens of military facilities,
the Russian Black Sea fleet
training grounds, fuel stations,
ammunition depots,
apparently, and even radar
for air defense systems,
a massive military area,
a red line for Putin
now in striking range.
And this strike in
what's coming
as we're also learning
of another
strike in the Russian occupied area,
this in the city of Aleppo.
The blast taking out power
to a number of neighborhoods.
Nic Robertson is OUTFRONT
live in eastern
Ukraine tonight along those front lines.
Nic, what is the latest on
the ground where you are
You know, this
evening we have noticed
missiles flying towards back,
but there's also been heavy fire
coming in from Russia
along the eastern front
as 300 surface to air missiles
hitting this town and another town
not far away.
Also close to relatively close to back
Not clear what Russia is doing,
but what the Kremlin announced today.
They,
like Prigozhin, now
admit that they are losing
ground and back foot.
And we went in there
with Ukrainian forces
to take a look at their gains
right?
Yes.
Amidst shell smashed trees.
Ukrainian troops
figure out how to get us close
to their new
hard won gains around back Mount Vernon.
Go behind me, distance five, four meters.
He's going at the last.
Okay.
How far from the Russian lines here?
Close to eight, 900 meters.
What lessons here
about a much anticipated bigger
Ukraine counteroffensive.
You can see here
how the ground is drying out,
how wet it was before
and how hard it would be
for the armored vehicles to get through
the battlefield is changing.
Now summer is coming.
And that's
everything for the counteroffensive.
So we have to get a bit faster here
because they take a lot of incoming
fire here.
I get a nice one,
if not for the war.
It would be a lovely walk
a little cover here from shelling.
Go, go, go.
Run along.
Just come in here.
You've heard a drone above.
So we've got some cover in here.
Hopefully it will system here
getting closer and closer
to the Russian lines.
This trench, one of several
and a new mine field position
to block Russian troops
about 600 meters away
from a counterattack,
out of sight, north and south of here.
More Ukrainian troops advancing,
building on the recent gains here.
Ukraine's western allies
say that
shaping operations
for the big counteroffensive
are already underway.
Commanders
here won't say
if this is part of that counteroffensive,
but the gains they've had around
back are a huge morale boost.
For Ukrainian troops.
How does it feel to be in the battle now
and to actually,
after all this time,
taking more territory?
I love it. Actually.
I love it because I am with my family,
with guys. That's my family.
But success,
not all that
sweating appetite for Victory Mountain
Russian atrocities fueling anger.
We all just want to take
our territory back
and give the
maximum possible Russians we can
Do you think the Russians understand
that?
No, I don't think so.
They are going to get killed,
all of them.
It's going to be a tough fight for you
there. Yeah, also.
But we are ready for this. It's our land
as we leave.
There are more explosions
than this
branch.
We don't ask.
We just run and keep running.
We're hearing a drone.
So we're running
They've got their armored troop
transporter ready.
Yeah.
Getting back here now.
Drones overhead.
More artillery coming
It's ancient Soviet equipment.
More modern NATO's armor.
Busy.
Elsewhere on the battlefield,
And that's where the fight is tonight.
That armor
that's busy on the battlefield.
And we've seen a lot of it in this area.
So there's a lot more for the Ukrainians
to put into this fight if they want to.
They are trying to push,
if you will, sort of north
and south of that area.
They've already taken
to extend their front line.
And so far it seems to be working.
But commanders here are very tight
lipped about
how much success they can have.
And they know that it took
the Russians months
to fight through back.
They don't believe themselves,
that they necessarily
want to take the whole city back.
Will they try to take it back
when they go run it?
Is this part of the bigger
counteroffensive At the moment,
we don't know the bit.
We do
know that fight in and around
Bama is underway tonight.
All right, Nick, thank you very much.
It's incredible to see that
and actually see you walking there,
see those trenches.
I want to bring in Bill Browder now.
He's a longtime
Putin critic
who is wanted in Russia, was once
the country's largest foreign investor.
Also, the author of Freezing Order
A True Story of Money
Laundering, Murder and Surviving
Vladimir Putin's Wrath.
So, Bill, it's good to see you again.
So, you know, you hear
Evgeny Prigozhin,
the front line is feeling
the flanks are crumbling.
The Russians are admitting
that they have lost ground near
buck mute.
What do you think this is
doing to Putin's mindset right now
that these admissions
are actually happening?
I think Putin must be sitting
in his bunker furious and frustrated
and not knowing what to do,
because none of this in his mind,
none of this should have ever happened.
He thought he was going to win this war
in three days,
that the Ukrainian
that Zelensky
would hop on a American helicopter
and the war would be over.
And here he is
more than a year afterwards, he's
lost more than 200,000 troops.
The tanks have all been destroyed.
They're running,
you know, from that mood, the
his generals were fighting
with each other.
This is just a quagmire
of massive proportions for him.
He's not a happy man.