US says it is a new thing to see Putin's leadership directly challenged

The U.S. State Department on Monday said the situation in Russia remains dynamic days after an aborted mutiny, adding it does not have any assessment about the whereabouts of the boss of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

"It is a certainly a new thing to see President Putin's leadership directly challenged. It is a new thing to see Yevgeny Prigozhin directly questioning the rationale for this war and calling out that the war has been conducted essentially based on a lie," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.