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The Kremlin is on high alert after calling for the arrest of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner private military, for his comments after a missile strike on one of his camps.
Prigozhin appeared to call for armed rebellion after accusing the Russian military of launching an attack and killing a large number of the men under his command. In a series of videos from the destroyed camp, Prigozhin seethed at the Russian government and vowed revenge.
"Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance," he said, according to Reuters.
"There are 25,000 of us, and we are going to figure out why chaos is happening in the country," he added. "We will consider anyone who tries to resist a threat and quickly destroy them."
Prigozhin denied he was calling for a coup, as he called on his supporters to march on Moscow.
"This is not a military coup, but a march of justice," Prigozhin said. "The evil embodied by the country's military leadership must be stopped."
Russian officials denied responsibility for the attack, and the FSB said it has launched an investigation into Prigozhin's comments.
"Prigozhin's statements are, in fact, calls for the start of an armed civil conflict on Russian territory, and his actions are a 'stab in the back' of Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces," the FSB said.
The FSB said he was facing charges of calling for an armed mutiny and called on Prigozhin's troops to arrest him.
"We urge the ... fighters not to make irreparable mistakes, to stop any forcible actions against the Russian people, not to carry out the criminal and traitorous orders of Prigozhin, to take measures to detain him."
Prigozhin was not deterred and said that his forces had entered the Rostov region of Russia, which borders Ukraine.
"Now we are entering Rostov. The units of the Ministry of Defense, or rather the conscripts, who were thrown to block our road, stepped aside," Prigozhin said, according to CNN.