Mutinous mercenary fighters are heading towards Moscow after seizing a southern Russian city overnight on the orders of the powerful Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has launched what President Vladimir Putin called an 'armed mutiny' in Russia.

The Russian leader has vowed to crush Prigozhin's uprising, the country's first armed insurrection in decades. 

But who exactly is the former hot-dog-seller-turned-militia-leader, and why is his private army facing off against Russia's military? 

READ MORE

Wagner leader agrees to exile in Belarus

The Windrush generation's long journey to justice

What is wet bulb temperature?

What is the Wagner group?

Sometimes called a mercenary group, sometimes referred to as a proxy force, it is essentially a private army. It was founded in 2014 by Yevgeny Prigozhin – a former associate and ally of Putin - when it backed pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

Wagner is thought to have around 50,000 troops in Ukraine, with the U.S. estimating that around 80 percent of them were recruited from Russian prisons. 

However last year it registered as a company and now openly recruits - with adverts seen on billboards across the country.

Wagner also has a global footprint. Its fighters has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali among others. But Prigozhin has accused the Kremlin of abandoning some conflicts in Africa and pocketing the money, something the defense ministry has denied.

Last month the group seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after some of the conflict's most brutal fighting, but Prigozhin has been highly critical of Moscow's top military commanders throughout the campaign. 

Who is the group's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin?

Famous for his aggressive PR style, visceral language and a frequent presence near the front lines in Ukraine, Prigozhin is one of the most visible faces of the Ukraine conflict, having allegedly recruited thousands of Russian prisoners to fight for Wagner.

After serving a long prison sentence in the 1980s, Prigozhin started out selling hotdogs in his hometown of St. Petersburg. He soon began to build up a stake in a chain of supermarkets, and eventually opened his own restaurant and catering company.

His restaurant gained a reputation for its fine food and was soon hosting dignitaries including then St Petersburg deputy mayor Vladimir Putin. From there, Prigozhin's catering firm Concord began to win government supply contracts, taking its operations to a much bigger level.

The 62-year-old would later come to be known as "Putin's chef" due to the Kremlin catering contracts. It's unclear how friendly he and Putin are, but he had previously been portrayed as a close ally of the Russian president. 

While Prigozhin has shied away from criticizing the Russian president, he has been relentless in his anger towards Russia's military leadership, in particular Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov despite new Russian legislation banning public criticism of the campaign.

Why is his private army facing off against Russia's military? 

On Friday, Prigozhin accused Russian troops of launching a rocket attack that killed scores of his fighters, triggering him to order what he calls a "march for justice" to remove corrupt and incompetent commanders he blames for botching the Ukraine conflict. 

Having already captured the Russian city of Rostov-On-Don by Saturday and setting off on an 1,100 kilometer race to Moscow, it is a serious escalation in the feud between the Wagner boss and Russia's military. But tensions have been building for months. 

Prigozhin has repeatedly railed against the regular army's top brass, accusing generals of incompetence and withholding ammunition from his fighters. In one of his most memorable video from early May, Prigozhin showed a field of dead Wagner mercenaries who he said had perished due to a lack of munitions caused by Shoigu and Gerasimov.

This month, he went so far as to defy orders to sign a contract placing his troops under the command of the Russian Defense Ministry, despite Putin backing the order. To do so would have made it harder for Prigozhin to build his own political and military influence, something he has spent months doing while receiving military hardware and ammunition from the army.

Putin's intervention on the defense ministry's side left Prigozhin in a difficult position, as the ministry has said that such contracts are required to give volunteer groups the "necessary legal status" to operate. He had said earlier in June that he was not sure if his men would even continue to fight in Ukraine amid the bitter standoff with the Defense Ministry.

Adding fuel to the fire on Thursday, Prigozhin accused Russia's military leadership of lying to Putin and the Russian people about the scale of Russian losses and setbacks in Ukraine.

"Total trash is being put on the president's desk. Shoigu and Gerasimov have a simple approach. The lie must be monstrous for people to believe it. That is what they are doing," he said in one message.

On entering Rostov this weekend, the mercenary leader said, "We came here to stop the disgrace in the country that we live in," before adding: "We are saving Russia."

Putin hosted an unscheduled televized address saying: "Those who staged the mutiny and took up arms against their comrades – they have betrayed Russia and will be brought to account." 

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday