A look at Russia in 2024 as Moscow has faced some of its biggest demanding situations in years
Russia said it captured the city in Kurakhove resources in eastern Ukraine this week, as its forces advance into the region nearly three 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, new amazing figures point to a strong escalation in the prices that the war imposes on both sides of the largest clash in Europe since World War II. Russia has gained Ukrainian territory twice the duration of Mauricio in 2024, according to experts. But how many 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).
It is twice the length of the country of the Indian Ocean of Mauricio and times of the New York region.
Russian territorial gains in 2024 in large part come with fields and small settlements in Ukraine, outside the territory that Ukraine of Kursk has resumed, according to the ISW.
In addition, Russia won Avdiivka, Slydove, Vuhledard and Kurakhove, 4 medium settlements, the ISW reported.
As of December 30, 2024, 427,000 Russian soldiers died or were injured in the war in 2024, according to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief 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, the highest Russian losses towards the end of the year. The Ministry of Defense reported that the highest losses occurred in November, with 45,720 victims, and December, with 48,670 victims. How many were injured 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 dead Russian soldiers, verifying data obituaries, family publications, statements by local authorities and other public reports.
Medizona’s online page states that the 2024 figures are “preliminary findings”, stating that: “2024 seems established in the most fatal year of war. Although this cannot yet be tested conclusively, since the knowledge of The injury arises with an abundant delay. “
Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify these numbers.
“It seems likely that Russian deaths are in the 100,000-plus [range],” Timothy Ash, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, told Al Jazeera.
However, in an interview with the French media Le Monde, published on December 17, Ukrainian commander Syrskii said that the number of Russian troops in Ukraine also seems to be increasing.
Oleg Ignatov, a senior analyst at Crisis Group, said that comments like Syrskii’s raise questions – how are Russian troop numbers in Ukraine growing if Moscow is suffering such devastating losses?
“We don’t know whether [this is because] the Russian recruitment model is good, or there are not as many [Russian] casualties [as is claimed],” he said.
In part, this is due to the fact that these numbers exercise immense propaganda for any of the sides.
“There is a war of narratives from both sides. Both sides use numbers trying to demonstrate its successes on the ground and to undermine the other side. These narratives are part of the war,” Ignatov told Al Jazeera.
On December 8, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced in a telegram post that 43,000 Ukrainian infantry soldiers had died on the battlefield since the beginning of the war in February 2022. The last time he announced a number of Dead for the Ukrainian infantry in February 2024, when he, when he was, when he was, when he was, when he announced. He said that 31,000 Ukrainian infantry soldiers had died. This would mean that 12,000 Ukrainian infantry soldiers died on the battlefield for about 10 months in 2024.
However, neither Russia nor Ukraine regularly publishes statistics about the number of 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.
It is not an unusual strategy in war times: during World War II, for example, each part underestimated their patients in part and exaggerated enemy victims two to 3 times, Miron said.
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 the number of Russian infantry soldiers who lost their lives in the war, and in specific in 2024, the mavens are unanimous at the conclusion that the figures of the victims for Russia are in record number, since World War II. During World War II, around 8. 7 million Soviet Infantry soldiers were killed, throughout all countries. Of the 15 Soviet republics, Russia has lost maximum infantry men, around 6. 7 million.
In the Soviet-Fgana war, which lasted 10 years, the Soviet made about 15,000 victims. During the Vietnam War, which lasted 20 years, the US Army. Uu lost 58,220 soldiers.
“Russian losses in Ukraine are several times greater,” 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 horrible demographics and this war has made things worse. “
Experts say territorial gains through Russia and Ukraine are of strategic importance to the two countries.
“Ukraine can and prosper economically without the land that Russia recently occupies, but what is vital there is security for the rest of Ukraine. That is why peace terms are so vital for Ukraine, “Ash said.
“For Russia, the captured lands have little strategic impact,” he added.
In fact, Ash argued, the occupied Ukrainian territory “will be a massive burden for the Russian economy to finance reconstruction. “
“And it’s at a time when the Russian economy is hungry because of sanctions,” he said.
Ignatov added that the Club of the territory in all aspects not in the center of the war. Instead, “it is a war of wear: victims, materials, infrastructure is what matters. “
None of the parties, he said, is “interested in the high fire so far. ” While their losses of hard work are transmitted, Ignatov reported that Moscow can face a challenge in 2025. “We do not know how long is the Russian recruitment style and we do not know if Russia will have to mobilize this year,” he said.