Ukraine Army Eliminates 1,040 Russian Soldiers Over The Weekend; 11 Armored Vehicles Destroyed

Russian forces continued to suffer heavy losses in the war in Ukraine over the weekend, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Russian troops suffered 570 casualties Saturday and lost another 470 servicemen Sunday, the Ukrainian military said.

The 1,040 Russian casualties in the past two days brought Russia's military death toll to 178,150 since the invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.

Ukrainian forces also successfully destroyed some of Russia's military equipment on the battlefield over the weekend, including eight armored personnel vehicles (APVs), three tanks and 18 artillery systems.

Overall, the Russian military has lost 3,636 tanks, 7,024 APVs and 2,740 artillery systems in the conflict.

According to the latest situation update from the Ukrainian military, Russia carried out more than 10 rocket attacks, 23 airstrikes and four missile strikes across the beleaguered country Sunday.

Russian forces launched two strikes using S-300 air defense missiles in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, killing two civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure.

The Ukrainian military said that two more Russian air defense missiles were launched that day targeting a civilian infrastructure facility in the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian military noted that Russian forces are still concentrating their offensive operations in the Ukrainian towns of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mar'inka.

Ukraine has expressed concern about the reported abductions of civilians in Russian-occupied territories.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces searched some civilians' homes in the city of Starobilsk in the Luhansk region to hunt those suspected of supporting Ukraine. They alleged that Russian forces sent those individuals to unknown destinations.

Meanwhile, an analysis of satellite images by Al Jazeera suggested that Ukraine could face an uphill battle if it tries to retake the Crimean region from Russia.

Between February and March, the Crimean border and its surrounding areas were fortified with an extensive network of trenches and defenses by the Russian military, according to satellite images obtained by Al Jazeera's Sanad from SkySat and Planet.com.

The Russian military is bracing for Ukraine's spring counteroffensive, which could possibly break the land corridor connecting Russia and the Crimean peninsula.

In September 2022, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Lieutenant General Mykhailo Zabrodskyi hinted that a military operation to retake Crimea is "logical," arguing that Russian forces continue to use the annexed region as a springboard to wreak havoc in other Ukrainian territories.

"The territory of the peninsula allows for the deployment of significant groups of troops and supplies of material resources," they wrote in a strategy paper.

"It is logical to assume planning for 2023 an operation or a series of operations to seize the peninsula," the Ukrainian military officials added.