A look at Russia in 2024, when Moscow has faced some of its most demanding situations for years
Russia claimed this week to have captured the resource-rich city of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine as its forces advance into the region just 3 years into the war.
Although Ukraine introduced a new offensive in Russian Kursk, leaving citizens shaken, Moscow’s forces continued to get slowly in eastern Ukraine. This war of wear seems to be wreaking havoc in the moral of the Ukrainian forces that face labor struggles against relentless attacks of Russia.
Now, the striking new figures point to a heavy burden the war imposes on both sides in the biggest European clash since World War II. Russia gained Ukrainian territory twice the duration of Mauritius in 2024, according to experts. But how many infantrymen have they lost in the process?
The Russian forces won 4,168 square kilometers (1,609 square miles) of Ukrainian lands in 2024, according to the geolocose evidence collected through the Institute in Washington, DC for the War exam (ISW).
That’s twice the size of the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius and five times the area of New York City.
Russian territorial gains in 2024 largely come from fields and small settlements in Ukraine, outside the territory that Ukraine has retaken from Kursk, according to the ISW.
In addition, Russia has won Avdiivka, Slydove, Vuhledard and Kurakhove, 4 medium -sized colonies, Isw reported.
As of December 30, 2024, 427,000 Russians have died or have been injured in the war in 2024, according to the commander in chief of Ukraine, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskii.
In a release published on January 2, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry placed Russia’s losses last year at 430,790 soldiers.
According to the most recent number, Russian losses in 2024 amount to an average of 1,180 consisting of the day and about 103 losses consistent with kilometer have won.
According to Ukraine, Russian losses are highest towards the end of the year. The Defense Ministry reported that the highest losses occurred in November, with 45,720 victims, and December, with 48,670 victims. How many were wounded and got rid of the battlefield.
According to the independent Russian website Mediazona, at least 31,481 Russian soldiers are confirmed to have died between January 1, 2024, and December 17, 2024.
Medizona uses open source studies to compile the names of the Russian dead, verifying data through necologies, family positions, local government statements and other public reports.
Medizona’s online page states that the 2024 figures are “preliminary findings,” stating that: “2024 seems set in the deadliest year of the war. Although this cannot yet be conclusively proven, as knowledge of the injury arises with an abundant delay. “
Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify these numbers.
“It turns out that Russian deaths are in the range of 100,000 [rank],” Timothy Ash, a member associated in the Russia and Eurasia program in Chatham House, a group of experts in London, told Al Jazera.
However, in an interview with the French media Le Monde, published on December 17, Ukrainian commander Salskii said that the number of Russian troops in Ukraine also to accumulate in a constant construction.
Oleg Ignatov, a senior analyst of the crisis group, said comments such as Syrskii’s succession questions: how do Russian troops numbers accumulate in Ukraine if Moscow suffers such devastating losses?
“We don’t know if [it’s because] the Russian recruitment style is good, or there aren’t as many [Russian] patients [as they say],” he said.
In part, this is because those numbers wield immense propaganda value for both sides.
“There is a war of narratives on both sides. However, the sides use numbers to demonstrate their successes in the box and undermine the other side. These stories are components of the war,” Ignatov told Al Jazeera.
On December 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a telegram that 43,000 Ukrainian infantrymen died on the battlefield since the get started of the war in February 2022. The last time he had announced a record for Ukrainian infantrymen in February 2024, when he said that 31,000 Ukrainian infantrymen had been killed. This would mean that 12,000 Ukrainian infantrymen died on the battlefield for about 10 months in 2024.
However, neither Russia nor Ukraine publish statistics on the number of infantry soldiers lost in the war.
In fact, they need to give the other party a review of the effectiveness of their army operations, Marina Miron, a researcher at the War Studies Department at King’s College in London, told Al Jazeera in October.
This is not an uncommon wartime strategy: During World War II, for instance, each side underreported their casualties by half and exaggerated enemy casualties by two to three times, said Miron.
There are other factors as well. The death of a soldier is only confirmed once the body has been found, after which the concerned defence ministry sends a death notification to the family.
Miron told Al Jazeera in October that if a government does not officially conform to a soldier as a dead, prevents wanting to pay the families of the deceased.
Regardless of exactly how many Russian soldiers have lost their lives in the war, and especially in 2024, experts are unanimous in concluding that the casualty figures for Russia are in record numbers – the highest since World War II. During World War II, an estimated 8.7 million Soviet military personnel were killed – by far the highest for any country. Of the 15 Soviet republics, Russia lost the most soldiers – an estimated 6.7 million.
In the 10-year Soviet-Aphgan War, the Soviet suffered around 15,000 victims. Dasting the 20 -year -old Vietnam War, the US Army. Uu lost 58,220 soldiers.
“Russian losses in Ukraine seem to be a lot of this,” Ash said.
“Having an effect on Russian society will be felt for years to come. Think about the human charge, then the physical care and the economic charge of this task market,” he said. Ash, he added, “explains the existing paint markets in the component in Russia and inflation to prices at the maximum. “
“Russia already had a horrible demographic aggregate and this war made things worse. “
Experts say that territorial gains through Russia and Ukraine are of strategic importance for the two countries.
“Ukraine can survive and prosper economically without the land Russia currently occupies, but what is important therein is security for the rest of Ukraine. That’s why the terms of the peace are so important for Ukraine,” Ash said.
“For Russia, the land captured makes little positive impact economically or strategically,” he added.
In fact, Ash argued, the occupied Ukrainian territory “will be a massive burden for the Russian economy to finance reconstruction. “
“And it is at a time when the Russian economy is hungry due to sanctions,” he said.
Ignatov added that the accession of territory by either side was not central to the war. Instead, “it’s a war of attrition – casualties, material, infrastructure is what matters”.
Neither side, he said, is “interested in the ceasefire so far. “While his losses from hard work are passed on, Ignatov reported that Moscow may face a challenge in 2025. “We don’t know how long the Russian conscription style is and we don’t know if Russia will have to mobilize this year,” he said.