Julian Assange refused on Thursday to surrender to US authorities on conspiracy charges — kicking off an extradition battle that officials say will drag out for “many months.”

The defiant WikiLeaks founder made his intentions clear via video during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

“I do not wish to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many awards and protected many people,” he told the court, BBC News reported.

British Judge Michael Snow said the US extradition case will now take “many months,” and set a procedural hearing for May 30 and a more substantive hearing for June 12.

Assange is facing charges in the US for allegedly conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system. He is accused of plotting with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password for a classified government computer.

Manning served several years behind bars for leaking a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Assange was arrested last month after Ecuador revoked his political asylum.

He had been holed up since 2012 in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he fled to avoid extradition to Sweden as part of a rape and sexual assault investigation.

At the time, he said he also feared being sent to the US to face charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents.

On Wednesday, the 47-year-old Australian was sentenced to 50 weeks in a UK prison for jumping bail in 2012 by taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

He faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge.

With Post wires