Ukraine Army Eliminates 960 More Russian Soldiers On Tuesday; 25 Armored Vehicles Destroyed

Russia lost 960 military personnel and 25 armored vehicles, including 15 tanks, in Ukraine between Monday and Tuesday, data provided by the Ukrainian military showed.

About 166,570 Russian personnel, 3,552 tanks and 6,879 armored fighting vehicles (AFV) have been eliminated since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its most recent casualty report released Tuesday.

In a report from the previous day, the military staff claimed Russia's total losses at the time included 165,610 soldiers, 3,537 tanks and 6,869 AFVs.

The Russian Army has been sending thousands of men into battle for more than two months in its latest attempt to take the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and its surrounding areas, The New York Times reported.

Up to 30,000 Russian servicemen have been killed or wounded in the fight for the settlement, which is located in Ukraine's partially Russian-occupied Donetsk province, Ian Stubbs, a senior military adviser part of the United Kingdom's delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said.

These included both soldiers from Russia's regular army and fighters from the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization that was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch known to be an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform reported.

"In the first month every day, five to six times a day, groups of 10 to 15 people were advancing on our infantry position through the tree line. They are killed and they come again," the media officer of Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said.

"Psychologically it's difficult — it's something unseen. Our guys are wondering if they are on drugs. Otherwise, how can they go to certain death, stepping over the rotting corpses of their colleagues? You can go mad a bit," he added.

Despite their losses, Russian forces have been able to incrementally advance in Bakhmut, threatening the T0504 and O0506 roads that Ukraine uses to supply its troops inside the city, The New York Times reported.

Russia was even nearly able to achieve its goal of encircling the city last month, according to the outlet.

Ukraine, for its part, has doubled down on the defense of Bakhmut, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claiming that the fall of the city would provide Russian forces an "open road" to neighboring settlements such as Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

"We understand what Russia wants to achieve there. Russia needs at least some victory — a small victory — even by ruining everything in Bakhmut, just killing every civilian there," Zelensky told CNN earlier this month in an interview.

"That's why our guys are standing there," he said.

Ukraine's casualty figures in Bakhmut could not be determined, but an unnamed NATO military official claimed to CNN that Ukrainians were suffering "significant losses" defending the city.