An armed force of Russian mercenaries captured a city late Friday and appeared to engage Russian forces Saturday without slowing its advance toward Moscow.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, commander of the Wagner Group, announced the first success of his march against Russian military leaders by taking control of Rostov-on-Don.

“Why does the country support us? Because we went on a march of justice,” Prigozhin said in a message on Telegram, according to Barron’s, citing an Agence France-Press dispatch.

“We got to Rostov. Without a single shot we captured the building of the (army) HQ,” he said.

The New York Post said the armed force marching north to Moscow contained about 25,000 soldiers.

The advancing column was fired upon when it reached Voronezh, according to Radio Liberty. Voronezh is about halfway between Rostov-on-don and Moscow.

The column included troop carriers and a tank carried on a flatbed truck, according to Reuters.

The mercenaries were fired upon by a helicopter, but Reuters wrote that “there were no reports of the rebels meeting any substantial resistance on the highway.”

Prigozhin said the Russian military was trying to attack civilian targets to slow the mercenary advance.

Prigozhin has called his uprising a “march for justice” aimed at removing military commanders he calls corrupt and he says have mismanaged the war in Ukraine.

As of Saturday morning Eastern time, the mercenaries were about 250 miles south of Moscow, according to The New York Times.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Russia is fighting for its life, according to Reuters.

“We are fighting for the lives and security of our people, for our sovereignty and independence, for the right to remain Russia, a state with a thousand-year history,” he said.

“All those who deliberately stepped on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed insurrection, who took the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, will answer both to the law and to our people,” he said, branding the uprising as treason.

Proigozhin issued a defiant message as his troops streamed north.

“The president makes a deep mistake when he talks about treason. We are patriots of our motherland, we fought and are fighting for it. We don’t want the country to continue to live in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy,” he said.

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