A look back at Russia in 2024 as Moscow faced some of its biggest challenges in years

Russia claimed this week to have captured the resource-rich city of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine, as its forces head into the region about 3 years into the war.

Even if Ukraine has introduced a new offensive in the Russian Kursk, leaving citizens shaken, Moscow’s forces continued to make slow gains in eastern Ukraine. This war of attrition turns out to be wreaking havoc on the morale of Ukrainian forces facing hard-work struggles in the face of Russia’s relentless attacks.

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 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 is twice the length of Mauricio, country of the Indian Ocean, and sometimes the length of the New York area.

Russian territorial gains in 2024 largely come from fields and small settlements in Ukraine, outside the territory, took Ukraine 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 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 consistent with the day and approximately 103 losses consistent with kilometer have 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 Russia of Mediazona, at least 31,481 Russian infantry soldiers died for having died between January 1, 2024 and December 17, 2024.

Mediazona uses open-source research to compile the names of Russian soldiers killed, verifying the information through obituaries, posts by relatives, statements from local authorities and other public reports.

The Mediazona website says that the numbers for 2024 are “preliminary conclusions,” stating that: “2024 appears set to become the war’s deadliest year. While this can’t yet be proven conclusively, as casualty data emerges with considerable 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 French news outlet Le Monde, published on December 17, Ukrainian commander Syrskii said that the number of Russian troops in Ukraine also appeared to be constantly 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 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 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, 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 februry 2022 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 infantry soldiers lost in the war.

This is because they want to avoid giving the other party insight into how effective their military operations have been, 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 points. The death of a soldier is shown once the frame is located, after which the applicable Ministry of 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 like dead, he avoids having 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-Afghan war, which lasted 10 years, the Soviet army suffered about 15,000 casualties. During the Vietnam War, which lasted 20 years, the US Army lost 58,220 soldiers.

“Russian losses in Ukraine seem to be many of this,” said Ash.

“Having an effect on Russian society will feel over the next few years. Think about the human position, then the physical care and economic position of this task market, “he said. Ash, he added,” explains the existing paint markets in the component in Russia and inflation at prices to the fullest. “

“Russia already had a terrible demographic mix and this war has made it much worse.”

Experts say the territorial gains gained through Russia and Ukraine are of strategic importance to either country.

“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 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 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. “

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.