“The highest price of war”: Russia lost 430,000 soldiers in 2024, according to Ukraine | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

Russia’s gradual advance into parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region succeeded in wresting 4,168 square kilometers (1,609 square miles) of abandoned fields and villages in 2024 – equivalent to 0.69% of the country’s area.

That was the assessment of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, based on satellite images and geotagged video footage.

The Institute for the Study of War said: “Russian forces captured four medium-sized settlements – Avdiivka, Seledov, Vohldar and Kurakhov – in all of 2024, the largest of which had a pre-war population of just over 31,000 people.”

Russian forces spent four months capturing Avdiivka, and two months each in Seledov and Kurakhov.

“The seizure of these settlements did not allow Russian forces to threaten any prominent Ukrainian defensive points,” ISW said, adding that Moscow forces failed to conduct the kind of rapid mechanized maneuver needed to turn these “tactical gains into deep penetrations into Ukraine’s rear.” .

At this rate, Russia will need an additional two years to complete its occupation of Donetsk alone, the Institute for the Study of War assesses – something Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his commanders to do by October 1.

Russia’s sacrifices to achieve this advance were enormous, as Ukrainian forces used their defending advantage to inflict heavy casualties, especially in urban areas where they fought block to block, street to street.

Ukrainian Supreme Commander Oleksandr Sirsky said on Monday that Russian forces had suffered an estimated 427,000 wounded and killed in 2024. A few days later, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry estimated Russia’s losses last year at 430,790 soldiers — the equivalent of 36 Russian automatic rifles. Divisions – more than its losses in 2022 and 2023 combined.

These losses averaged 1,180 per day, but casualty numbers rose significantly towards the end of the year, as Russian forces increased their attacks. In apparent effort To influence the American elections.

The Defense Ministry said the highest monthly losses came in November and December – 45,720 and 48,670 respectively – as Russia intensified its attacks in Donetsk.

“This year, the Russians paid the highest price for the war against Ukraine, as our army and all of our defense and security forces in Ukraine destroyed more enemy equipment and manpower than in any previous year of the war,” Sirksi said. Troops in a speech on December 31.

“1,700 dead and wounded every day”

Russia managed to increase its daily territory seizures 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. It appears that its losses have not decreased proportionately.

“Over the past week, the invaders have lost about 1,700 people killed and wounded every day,” Sirksi said on Monday.

December also produced two potential records for Russian casualties.

On December 29, the Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian forces had lost 2,010 people. They suffered a possible all-time record of 2,200 daily casualties in a total of 191 combat engagements on 19 December.

Ukraine also estimated that it destroyed 3,689 Russian tanks, thousands of armored combat vehicles, and more than 13,000 artillery pieces. The Ukrainian Navy said it sank five ships and 458 small boats.

Russia has recruited North Korean fighters in an attempt to ease pressure on its manpower, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a quarter of them had been eliminated.

According to preliminary data, the number of dead and wounded North Korean soldiers “In the Kursk region it already exceeds 3,000 people,” Zelensky said in his evening speech on December 23.

He recently claimed that Russia is killing North Koreans for the risk of them falling into the hands of Ukrainian forces.

“Everything is arranged in such a way that it is impossible for us to capture Koreans as prisoners, their own people execute them, and there are such cases,” Zelensky said in an evening speech on December 27.

Ukrainian military intelligence, GUR, said more North Koreans were being brought to Kursk to compensate for losses.

Russia looks to Central Asia to heal its economy

Putin appears to have prioritized the workforce in the war over workers for the economy.

He signed a decree on Monday requiring all illegal immigrants to leave Russia by the end of April, but joining the army allows them to circumvent the requirements of regular legal status.

Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service estimates that Russia suffered a labor shortage of 1.5 million people last year, with the available workforce falling by 1 million people. However, Putin’s decree would pull foreign workers from the economy and put them on the front lines.

Putin acknowledged a shortage of “hundreds of thousands” at a year-end news conference on December 19, but did not link the shortage to the war. Instead, he proposed bringing in more migrant workers from Central Asian countries.

He emphasized the need to “develop a network of Russian schools there, study the Russian language, introduce people who will come to work here” and spoke of the need to increase labor productivity through higher technologies.

Both Ukraine and Russia have turned to a war economy, with Russia funded by income from fossil fuels and Ukraine funded by aid from its Western allies.

Both have sought to become as independent of weapons as possible.

In his New Year’s speech, Zelensky said that 30 percent of the weapons used by Ukraine last year were homemade.

He said: “I felt ashamed as a citizen that since the 1990s, the state has not noticed people like ours.” “And I am proud…that Ukraine is once again building its own missiles. For the first time, it produces more than one million drones in one year.

Ukraine has used air and sea drones of its own design to strike deep into Russia and across the Black Sea.

Ukrainian military intelligence said on Tuesday that it used a SeaDragon missile launched from a Magura V maritime drone to shoot down a Russian Mi8 helicopter.

“Today, for the first time, a helicopter was shot down and fell into the water. “The fact of destroying an air target over the Black Sea has been recorded,” Kirill Budanov, head of Ukrainian intelligence, said in a conference call.

GUR released footage of the raid. He added that the Russian helicopters that were struck in this war were previously able to reach the airport.

Russia has also invested in drones, although it is hampered by Western sanctions on imports of sensitive technology.

Ukrainian intelligence sources told CNN that its drone factory in Alabuga, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of Moscow, produced 5,760 drones in the first nine months of last year, double its output in 2023.

The Ukrainian air force said that in 2024 it faced a much greater missile and drone threat against critical infrastructure than in 2023, partly because Russia was also using Shahed drones that do not carry explosives but confuse air defenses and overwhelm them. On her.

The Air Force said, “The enemy is trying to complicate the air situation as much as possible, increase pressure on our air defenses, and exhaust the defenders of the sky.”

Over the past year, Ukraine said it shot down 11,200 “attack” drones, including 7,800 “Shahed” drones.

The municipality said that Kiev alone faced 200 air attacks last year, including 1,300 drones, more than 200 cruise missiles, and 46 ballistic missiles.

A civilian was killed during New Year’s Eve, after a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in Kiev, the Ukrainian prosecutor general announced. Another drone caused a fire at the National Bank of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian air force said the drones were part of a massive attack that included 111 Shahed suicide drones, of which it said it shot down 63.

Despite its rising 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 could be withdrawn immediately.

Biden said the package represented the remainder of the $60 billion in aid he signed into law for 2024, and included “hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, thousands of missiles, hundreds of armored vehicles” as well as air defense equipment.