Al Jazeera :
Russia’s gradual, grinding advance in parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk succeeded in wresting away 4,168 sq km (1,609 square miles) of fields and abandoned villages in 2024 – equivalent to 0.69 percent of the country.
That was the assessment of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, based on satellite imagery and geolocated video footage.
“Russian forces have seized four mid-sized settlements – Avdiivka, Selydove, Vuhledar, and Kurakhove – in all of 2024, the largest of which had a pre-war population of just over 31,000 people,” said the ISW.
Russian forces spent four months taking Avdiivka, and two months each for Selydove and Kurakhove.
“Seizing these settlements has not allowed Russian forces to threaten any notable Ukrainian defensive nodes,” said the ISW, adding that Moscow’s troops failed to conduct the kind of rapid, mechanised manoeuvre necessary to convert these “tactical gains into deep penetrations of Ukraine’s rear”.
At this rate, Russia would need two more years to complete its conquest of Donetsk alone, the ISW assessed – something Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered his commanders to do by October 1.
Russia’s sacrifices to achieve these advances have been immense, as Ukrainian forces used their defender’s advantage to inflict high casualties, especially in urban settings where they fought building-to-building, street-to-street.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Monday that Russian forces had suffered an estimated 427,000 wounded and killed in 2024. A few days later, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence put Russia’s losses last year at 430,790 soldiers – the equivalent of 36 Russian motorised rifle divisions – outnumbering its losses in 2022 and 2023 combined.
These losses amounted to an average of 1,180 a day, but casualty figures rose substantially towards the end of the year, as Russian forces increased their assaults in an apparent effort to influence the US election.
The highest monthly losses, the Defence Ministry said, 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 defence and security forces of Ukraine destroyed more enemy equipment and manpower than in any of the previous years of the war,” Syrksyi told his forces in an address on December 31.
Russia did manage to increase its daily land grab from 14 sq km (5.4 square miles) in October to 28 sq km in November but fell back to 18 sq km (11 square miles) a day in December.
Apparently, its losses did not fall commensurately.
“Over the past week, the invaders have been losing about 1,700 people killed and wounded every day,” Syrksyi said on Monday.
December also produced two possible Russian casualty records.
On December 29, Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces lost 2,010 people. They suffered a possible all-time record of 2,200 daily casualties in a total of 191 combat clashes on December 19.
Ukraine also estimated it had taken out 3,689 Russian tanks, thousands of armoured combat vehicles, and more than 13,000 artillery pieces. Ukraine’s navy said it sank five ships and 458 smaller craft.
Russia recruited North Korean fighters in an effort to relieve pressure on its manpower, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a quarter of them had been wiped out.
“According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address on December 23.
