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Chechnya warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has sided with President Vladimir PutinÌýas the Wagner group fighters barrelled towards Moscow after seizing a southern city overnight.

In aÌý, Kadyrov echoed comments made earlier by Putin who slammed the rebellion as "treason" and a "stab in the back".

TheÌýChechnya warlord,Ìýwho has often described himself as Putin's "foot soldier", said the Wagner mutiny was a "challenge to the state", adding that it was necessary to "rally around the national leader".

He said that Chechen fighters had already left for the areasÌýof conflict.

Chechen units, under the command of Kadyrov, had joined Russian troops at theÌýfrontlines in Ukraine, particularly in areas were the Russians had facedÌýmajor setbacks.

Moscow fought two wars with separatists in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia, after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. But it has since poured huge sums of money into the region to rebuild it and given Kadyrov a large measure of autonomy.