A look at Russia in 2024 when Moscow has faced some of its biggest demanding situations for years
Russia said this week, having captured the city in the resources of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine, while its forces are heading into the region nearly 3 years into the war.
Even as Ukraine launched a new offensive in Russia’s Kursk, leaving residents shaken, Moscow’s forces have continued to make slow gains in eastern Ukraine. That attritional war appears to be taking a toll on the morale of Ukrainian forces who face manpower struggles in the face of relentless attacks from Russia.
Now, the new surprising figures point to a strong burden that the war imposes on both sides in the largest European clash since World War II. Russia won the Ukrainian territory twice the duration of Mauricio in 2024, according to experts. But how many infantry men have lost in the process?
The Russian forces have won 4,168 kilometers (1,609 miles) of Ukrainian lands in 2024, according to the geolocated evidence collected through the War Study Institute (ISW) based in Washington D. C.
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 largely come with fields and small colonies in Ukraine, outside the territory, Ukraine took in Kursk, according to the ISW.
Additionally, Russia gained Avdiivka, Selydove, Vuhledar, and Kurakhove, four mid-sized settlements, the ISW reported.
As of December 30, 2024, 427,000 Russians died or were injured in the war in 2024, according to the commander, in the principal of Ukraine, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskii.
In a report published on Jan. 2, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry put Russia’s losses last year at 430,790 soldiers.
Based on the more recent number, the Russian losses in 2024 amount to an average of 1,180 per day, and about 103 losses per square kilometre gained.
According to Ukraine, the Russian losses increased towards the end of the year. The Defence Ministry said the highest losses came in November, with 45,720 losses, and December, with 48,670 losses. It is unclear how many of these Russian soldiers were killed and how many were injured and therefore removed from the battlefield.
According to the independent Russian Medizona, at least 31,481 Russian infantrymen who died between January 1, 2024 and December 17, 2024, are shown.
Medizona uses open-source studies to compile the names of dead Russian soldiers, verifying obituaries for data, posts of relatives, statements from local authorities, 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 independently to determine those figures.
“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 newspaper Le Monde, published on December 17, Ukrainian commander Salskii said that the number of Russian troops in Ukraine is also to build up steadily.
Oleg Ignatov, a senior analyst at the Crisis Group, said comments such as Syrskii’s succession questions: how do Russian troop numbers in Ukraine accumulate if Moscow suffers such devastating losses?
“We do not know if [it is because] the Russian recruitment style is good, or there are not so many [Russian] [as they say],” 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 stories on both sides. The two components use numbers to demonstrate their successes in the box and undermine the other side. These stories are components of war, ”said Ignatov to the Jazeera.
On December 8, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced on a telegram that 43,000 Ukrainian infantry soldiers died on the battlefield since they began the war in February 2022. The last time he had announced a dead number for the infantry Ukraine in February 2024, when he said he said that 31,000 Ukrainian infantry soldiers had been killed. This would mean that 12,000 Ukrainian infantry soldiers died on the battlefield for about 10 months in 2024.
However, neither Russia nor Ukraine publish statistics on the number of infantrymen lost in the war.
In fact, they need to give the other side a glimpse into the effectiveness of their army operations, Marina Miron, a researcher at the Department of War Studies at King’s College 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 also other factors. The death of a soldier is shown once the framework found, after which the ministry involved in defense sent a notification of death 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 infantrymen who lost their lives in the war, and specifically in 2024, the Mavens are unanimous in concluding that the casualty figures for Russia are at a record number since World War II. During World War II, about 8. 7 million Soviet infantrymen were killed, across all countries. Of the 15 Soviet republics, Russia has lost the maximum infantrymen, about 6. 7 million.
In the Soviet-Afghan war, which lasted 10 years, the Soviet made about 15,000 casualties. During the Vietnam War, which lasted 20 years, the U. S. military was forced to fight against the U. S. U. S. It lost 58,220 soldiers.
“Russian losses in Ukraine seem to be many of this,” said Ash.
“The impact on Russian society will be felt for years to come. Think of the human cost and then healthcare and economic cost of that – on the workforce,” he said. That, Ash added, “partly explains current tight labour markets in Russia and high wage-price inflation”.
“Russia already had a terrible demographic mix and this war has made it much worse.”
Experts say that territorial gains through Russia and Ukraine are of strategic importance for 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, occupied Ukrainian territory “will be a massive burden on the Russian economy to finance reconstruction. “
“And this is at a time when the Russian economy is starved of resources due to sanctions,” he said.
Ignatov added that the territory’s accession in any aspect is not at the heart of the war. In case “it is a war of attrition: victims, materials, infrastructure is what matters”.
Neither side, he said, appears “interested in ceasefire so far”. As its manpower losses mount, Ignatov suggested that Moscow might face a challenge in 2025. “We don’t know how sustainable the Russian recruitment model is and we don’t know if Russia has to mobilise this year,” he said.