Russia Lost 2,100 Soldiers In Ukraine Over The Weekend; 45 Armored Vehicles Destroyed: UAF

Russia lost 2,100 military personnel and 45 armored vehicles, including 18 tanks, over the weekend in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, according to data provided by the Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF).

About 1,090 Russian personnel. eight tanks and seven armored fighting vehicles (AFV) were reported lost by the UAF's General Staff Sunday.

In its casualty report from the previous day, the military staff claimed that Russia lost 1,010 personnel, 10 tanks and 20 AFVs.

In total, Russia has lost 159,090 soldiers, 3,466 tanks and 6,769 AFVs since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the latest figures provided by the Ukrainian military showed.

Russia is currently focused on the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's partially occupied Donetsk province, but its forces, which included fighters from the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, did not make any confirmed advances within the settlement Saturday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a statement released that day.

"Ukrainian and Russian sources continue to report heavy fighting in the city, but Wagner Group fighters are likely becoming increasingly pinned in urban areas... and are therefore finding it difficult to make significant advances," the American think tank stated.

A rivalry between Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has likely reached a boiling point over Bakhmut, and both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military "may use Prigozhin as a scapegoat for the costly drive on Bakhmut once the offensive culminates," the ISW said in a more recent assessment of the war.

Prigozhin is believed to have convinced Putin that he would be able to seize Bakhmut if given access to the Russian MoD's ammunition stocks and was allowed to expand his recruitment campaigns to include regular Russians and prisoners.

However, Putin had already allowed the Russian military to retake control of the Bakhmut direction from Prigozhin by January as the Wagner Group failed to deliver its promised victory, according to the ISW.

Russian military leadership may now be trying to expend Wagner Group forces and Prigozhin's influence in Bakhmut.

"The conflict between the Russian MoD and Wagner shows that different parties in Putin's inner circle are competing with one another in potentially zero-sum games that do not further Putin's overall objectives," the ISW said.