Russia Loses 4,430 Service Members as Putin Deals With Mutiny Fallout

Russian President Vladimir Putin survived a brief Wagner Group rebellion last weekend, but continues dealing with the political fallout. Meanwhile, his military also continues to suffer heavy casualties in Ukraine.

Last Friday, Wagner leader and founder Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed Russia's military had killed about 30 of his troops in a missile strike and ordered his men to march to Moscow. However, the rebellion ended the following day after peace was brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Despite the quick resolution, the incident has caused Kremlin critics to claim the mutiny exposed critical weaknesses in Putin's leadership. Reports have also emerged that the Russian leader has removed top generals from power for not doing more to put down the mercy uprising.

Amid the unrest, Putin's military continues to lose personnel as it responds to Ukraine's counteroffensive against the Russian invasion of its country. Since the Wagner revolt started, Russia has suffered 4,430 casualties in the war, according to a Friday report by the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces.

In addition, Russia has now lost a total of 224,630 troops since Putin started the war last February.

Around a dozen Russian troops were also killed by Wagner forces during last week's rebellion, a fact that Putin acknowledged while not specifying the number of deaths. When he honored troops and security forces earlier this week for helping to avert what he called a potential "civil war," he held a moment of silence for the pilots that had been killed by the private military company.

Though the Kremlin has not released any more information about these pilots, Ukrainian authorities said Wagner forces had destroyed six Russian helicopters and a plane during the revolt. Independent media outlets have placed the number of dead Russians during these incidents at between 12 and 15.

The Kremlin doesn't often comment on its amount of losses, and it's been accused of underreporting the numbers when it does. The numbers released by Ukraine have not been independently verified by Newsweek.

Along with troop casualties, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces also keeps a running tally of Russian military equipment that has been destroyed during the conflict.

Since the beginning of Russia's invasion, it has lost 4,041 tanks, according to Ukraine. Meanwhile, 17 of those tanks were lost during Prigozhin's short-lived assault on June 23.

Moscow has also lost 7,863 armored fighting vehicles, with 59 of those coming in the past week. Added to that are 54 lost vehicles and fuel tanks during the week (6,785 total); 202 artillery systems (4,127 total); 11 multiple launch rocket systems (630 total); six air defense systems (389 total); one airplane (315 total); and 59 drones (3,519).

During the course of the war, Russia has also lost 308 helicopters and 18 boats, according to Ukraine's estimates. Those figures were unchanged since last Friday.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.