Ukraine Successfully Eliminates 1,060 Russian Soldiers In 24 Hours; 20 Armored Vehicles Destroyed

Russia lost 1,060 soldiers and 20 armored vehicles, including nine tanks, in Ukraine between Monday and Tuesday, data provided by the Ukrainian military showed.

A total of 154,830 Russian military casualties have been recorded since the conflict began more than a year ago, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a combat losses report released Tuesday.

Russia has also lost 3,432 tanks and 6,714 armored fighting vehicles (AFV), among other pieces of military equipment, over the course of the war.

In its Monday casualty report, Ukraine's military stated that Russia had lost 153,770 personnel, 3,423 tanks and 6,703 AFVs up to that point.

Western officials said that between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian soldiers have been either killed or wounded in the battle for Bakhmut in Ukraine's partially occupied Donetsk province alone, according to a report by the BBC.

While Bakhmut has been able to hold out ever since it became Russia's primary target last summer, the Ukrainian defense of the city "continues to degrade forces on both sides," the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense said in a Tuesday intelligence briefing.

An unnamed military official with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) told CNN that Russia was losing five troops for every Ukrainian soldier killed in Bakhmut but noted that Ukraine was still suffering "significant losses."

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

However, Russia's forces "lack the capability to exploit the tactical capture of Bakhmut to generate operational effects," according to the Institute for the Study of War.

"The continuing devolution of Russian force structure towards small assault detachments using simplified tactics, combined with mounting losses among the most effective Russian troops, will likely greatly limit the ability of Russian forces to properly exploit any paths of advance opened by the capture of Bakhmut," the American think tank said in a statement released Tuesday.

In addition to dealing with the actual assault on Bakhmut, Russia's forces may have gotten tangled in a rivalry between the regular Russian military and the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, the latter of which has taken a prominent role in the city's siege.

Russian billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group's founder and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently complained that his forces did not receive promised ammunition possibly due to "betrayal," The Moscow Times reported.

"We are trying to understand what the reasons are — the usual bureaucracy or betrayal," Prigozhin, who accused the Russian Defense Ministry of withholding supplies, said in a video Sunday.