A U. S. tank estimated Tuesday that Russia lost about 40 infantrymen for every square kilometer captured in Ukraine in 2024.
The Institute for the Study of War, which followed the giant full-scale invasion of Ukraine via Russia, said it had noticed geolocated evidence indicating that Russian forces had 4168 complex kilometers, or roughly 1,609 miles last year.
To calculate Russia’s casualty rate, he used an estimate through Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrskyi that 427,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded by 2024.
The slow speed of Russia’s advance this year (it is estimated that the conquered territory is smaller than Delaware) has been compared to the rapid advances that Ukraine could achieve when he introduced an offensive in the Russian region of Kursk in August. He resumed much of this territory.
Although Russia has made steady gains in recent months, taking many cities and towns in eastern Ukraine, it has not made any symbolic or primary strategic breakthroughs.
The ISW Moscow obtained 56. 5% of its territorial profits in 2024, from September to November.
These gains have come at a huge cost: Russian losses appear to have skyrocketed in recent months.
The British Ministry of Defense last month pointed out that the Ukrainian army estimates that November a record of Russian casualties in the war, with 45,680 victims, a daily average of approximately 1,523.
George Barros, a Russia analyst at the ISW, told Business Insider that Russian losses were mounting as they “have been running a very high tempo of operations” since about October 2023.
“The Russians have been, I think, at the expense of high casualties and exhaustion, continuing with a very high tempo of operations, which haven’t ceased,” Barros said.
Russia’s invasion tactics have included employing its largest army to try to overwhelm Ukrainian positions, resorting to “wave of meat” assaults.
That means Russia may not slow down or stop its efforts even in the face of big losses.
The ISW on Tuesday noted that Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is now the deputy chairperson of the Russian Security Council, said in December that almost 440,000 recruits had signed military service contracts with Russia’s defense ministry in 2024.
The ISW said that this warned that Russia “is probably recruiting enough army workers to update their most recent casualties for one. “
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