Russia has made gradual, hard advances in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and by 2024 succeeded in capturing 4,168 square kilometers (1,609 square miles) of fields and abandoned villages, equivalent to 0.69 percent of the country.
That’s the assessment made by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, based on satellite imagery and location-based video footage.
“Throughout 2024, Russian forces occupied four medium-sized settlements: Avdiivka, Selidove, Vledal and Krahov, the largest of which had a pre-war population of just over 31,000 people,” ISW said.
Russian troops spent four months occupying Avdiivka and two months each in Seridov and Krahov.
“By occupying these settlements, Russian forces were unable to threaten Ukraine’s notable defense nodes,” ISW said, adding that Russian forces were able to extend these “tactical gains deep into Ukraine’s rear.” It added that it was unable to carry out the rapid and mechanized maneuver needed to turn the situation into “infiltration.” .
At this rate, ISW assessed that it would take Russia another two years to conquer Donetsk on its own, which Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered his commanders to do by October 1. Ta.
The Russian sacrifices to achieve these advances were incalculable, as Ukrainian forces took advantage of their defensive advantage and suffered heavy casualties, especially in urban environments where they fought building-to-building and street-to-street combat. It was something that didn’t exist.
Russian military forces suffered an estimated 427,000 wounded and killed in 2024, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Shirsky said on Monday. A few days later, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense announced that Russia lost 430,790 people last year, the equivalent of 36 Russian-made motorized rifles. The department’s loss numbers exceed the losses in 2022 and 2023 combined.
These losses amounted to an average of 1,180 people per day, but casualties increased significantly towards the end of the year as the Russian military stepped up attacks in an apparent attempt to influence the US election.
The highest monthly losses were in November and December, at 45,720 and 48,670, respectively, as Russia stepped up its offensive in Donetsk, according to the Defense Ministry.
“This year Russia has paid the highest price in the war against Ukraine. All of our armed forces and Ukraine’s defense and security forces have destroyed more enemy equipment and manpower than in any previous year of the war. Because I did,” Silksy said. Troops speaking on December 31st.
“1,700 people are killed or injured every day.”
Russia managed to increase land grabs per day from 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in October to 28 square kilometers in November, but fell to 18 square kilometers (11 square miles) per day in December. Apparently, losses did not reduce commensurately.
“Over the past week, the invaders have been killing and wounding around 1,700 people every day,” Silksi said on Monday.
In December, two possible records of Russian casualties were discovered.
On December 29, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced that Russian troops had lost 2,010 personnel. On December 19th, a total of 191 battles resulted in what could be an all-time record of 2,200 casualties in a single day.
Ukraine also estimates it has captured 3,689 Russian tanks, thousands of armored fighting vehicles, and more than 13,000 artillery pieces. The Ukrainian Navy said it had sunk five ships and 458 small craft.
Russia has conscripted North Korean fighters to ease pressure on human resources, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a quarter of the soldiers had been wiped out.
In his speech on the evening of December 23, President Zelenskiy said, “According to preliminary data, the number of casualties of North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region has already exceeded 3,000.”
He recently claimed that Russia is killing North Koreans at risk of falling into the hands of the Ukrainian military.
In his speech on the night of December 27, President Zelenskyy said, “Everything is arranged so that it will be impossible to take Koreans as prisoners of war.The Koreans are executing them. There is,” he said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency GUR said more North Koreans were being brought to Kursk to compensate for losses.
Russia looks to Central Asia for economic recovery
President Putin appears to have prioritized human resources for the war over workers for the economy.
He signed a decree on Monday forcing all illegal immigrants to leave Russia by the end of April, but will be able to bypass normal legal status requirements by joining the military.
Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service estimated that Russia suffered a labor shortage of 1.5 million people last year, with the available workforce decreasing by 1 million. But Putin’s decree will suck foreign workers out of the economy and put them on the front lines.
President Putin acknowledged a shortage of “several hundred thousand people” at a year-end press conference on December 19, but did not link the shortage to war. Instead, he proposed bringing in more migrant workers from Central Asian countries.
He spoke of the need to “build a network of Russian language schools locally and introduce people to learn Russian and come to work here,” and spoke of the need to increase labor productivity through more advanced technology.
Both Ukraine and Russia have moved into war economies, with Russia financed by fossil fuel revenues and Ukraine financed by aid from its Western allies.
Both have sought as much autonomy in their weapons as possible.
In his New Year’s address, President Zelensky said that 30% of the weapons used by Ukraine last year were domestically produced.
“As a citizen, I felt ashamed that the country had not noticed these people since the 1990s,” he said. “And I am proud that Ukraine is once again producing its own, indigenous missiles. And for the first time, we have produced more than 1 million drones per year.”
Ukraine uses air and naval drones of its own design to carry out attacks deep into Russia and across the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency announced on Tuesday that a Sea Dragon missile fired from the naval drone Magura V was used to shoot down a Russian Mi8 helicopter.
“Today, for the first time, a helicopter was shot down and fell into the sea, which means the fact of the destruction of an air target over the Black Sea is recorded,” Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kirill Budanov said in a video call.
GUR released footage of the strike. Previously, Russian helicopters attacked in this war managed to reach the airfield, he said.
Russia is also investing in drones, but is hampered by Western sanctions on imports of sensitive technology.
Ukrainian sources told CNN that the company’s drone factory in Arabuga, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of Moscow, produced 5,760 drones in the first nine months of last year. , which is equivalent to twice the production volume in 2023.
The Ukrainian Air Force has announced that the threat from missiles and drones to critical infrastructure will be much greater in 2024 than in 2023. Part of the reason is that Russia also used decoy Shahid drones, which do not carry explosives but can confuse and overwhelm air defenses.
“The enemy seeks to complicate the air situation as much as possible, overload our air defense forces and exhaust our air garrison,” the Air Force said.
Over the course of last year, Ukraine said it had shot down 11,200 “attack” drones, of which 7,800 were Shaheds.
Last year, Kiev alone was subjected to 200 air attacks, including 1,300 drones, more than 200 cruise missiles and 46 ballistic missiles, the city said.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General reported that a civilian was killed on New Year’s Eve night after a Russian drone crashed into a residential building in Kiev. Another drone caused a fire at the National Bank of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force said the drones were part of a large-scale attack involving 111 Shahed suicide bombers, of which 63 were shot down.
Despite increasing arms production, Ukraine remained heavily dependent on supplies from its allies.
US President Joe Biden on Monday announced $2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine, half of which will be earmarked for immediate withdrawal capabilities.
Biden said the package is the remainder of the $60 billion in aid he signed in 2024, which includes not only air defense equipment but also “hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, thousands of rockets, hundreds of armored vehicles.” Said to be included.
