Defiant Wagner chief Prigozhin claims he has 25,000 'patriot' soldiers who will not surrender despite Putin's demands. 'All of us are ready to die.'

• Wagner Group's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has defiantly responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Putin had said that the "armed mutiny" was a "betrayal" and vowed that Russia would defend itself.

Wagner Group's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has defiantly rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments accusing mutinying Wagner troops of "treason."

Prigozhin said the Russian president was "deeply mistaken" and that he and his men were "patriots" in a voice note posted to his Telegram channel on Saturday.

"Nobody is going to turn themselves in and confess at the order of the president, the FSB (security service), or anyone else. Because we don't want the country to continue to live any longer in corruption, deceit, and bureaucracy," he said, per a Reuters translation.

The comments mark the most direct challenge to Putin that Prighozin has ever made. The fiery Wagner chief has openly slammed the Russian Ministry of Defense and military leadership but has avoided naming the president, his former ally.

Prigozhin and scores of Wagner fighters entered southern Russia from occupied Ukraine and claimed to have taken control of several military sites.

While Putin did not name Wagner or Prigozhin in a televised address to the nation on Saturday morning, he said that the events were a "betrayal" and vowed that Russia would defend itself.

Prigozhin launched the unprecedented rebellion after slamming Russia's "evil" defense ministry in a series of Telegram posts on Friday and accusing them of orchestrating a missile strike that killed a number of his fighters.

"All of us are ready to die. All 25,000, and then another 25,000," he said about his troops in a social media post, per an Al Jazeera translation.

The UK Department of Defense said on Saturday that Wagner forces are now "almost certainly" aiming to march to Moscow.