Will Wagner remain active as a significant fighting force on the Ukraine battlefield? These are some of the big questions that remain unclear after the shocking weekend turmoil set in motion by Prigozhin. But what is clear is that he's still defending his actions as necessary, while hitting out once again at the Russian Defense Ministry and top leadership.

The Wagner founder and chief has on Monday issued his first full explanation of his actions which began Friday, setting off Russia's first major internal crisis of the Ukraine war, which was met with denunciations of 'treason' and 'armed mutiny' by President Putin as well as the top military commanders.

Geopolitical analyst Dmitri Alperovitch has offered a hasty translation and paraphrase of the about 11-minute audio message posted to Wagner's Telegram channel. Alperovitch concludes of the new message, "Prigozhin remains defiant and proud of his action. Certainly not acting like a man who had been defeated." And there is "no word about his current whereabouts."