The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces has asserted that Russian forces suffered more combat deaths in 2024 than any other year of the war so far.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi told Ukrainian state television that according to Kyiv estimates, in 2024 the Russian Federation had 434,000 casualties inflicted upon them. Of those, “approximately 150,000 were killed in 2024”, he said, meaning over the course of that year Putin has “lost more than in the previous two years of the war”.
Indeed, per official figures periodically published by Kyiv, Russian casualties in total are well on their way to one million, with 818,000 men, 9,800 tanks, and over 20,000 APCs “eliminated” by Ukrainian forces to the start of this week since day one.
According to Ukraine, combat casualties have been soaring for Russia through 2024, reaching record highs by Autumn — the country allegedly losing twice as many troops per day in October than in the first year of the war — and then allegedly continuing to rise to as many as 2,000 per day by Christmas. This was down to, Kyiv stated, Moscow’s human-wave tactics to overwhelm Ukrainian positions with sheer weight of men.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence says Russian casualties had increased for six months in a row to December, and with over 48,000 casualties it had been the worst month of the war yet for Russia.
As ever, there is no independent arbiter of Ukraine war combat casualties and there is undeniable public morale value in any given side in a conflict emphasising enemy combatant deaths while minimising home losses. Western estimates tend to focus on what Russian losses are, and Ukraine’s casualties are rarely, if ever, discussed, although in 2023 President Zelensky called Russian estimates of his own combat losses a “deceitful” lie which had been inflated ten-fold.
As well as speaking of Russian casualties, General Syrskyi also boasted this week of the efficacy of Ukrainian strikes on Russian weapon dumps, saying they were now being felt on the battlefield. This was evidenced, he said, because the amount of amunition being used by Russian forces on the battlefield was falling, demonstrating the bombing of munitions stores really was having a logistical impact.
The General said: “For several months now, the artillery ammunition expenditure rates in the Russian army have practically halved. If previously the figure reached up to 40,000 rounds per day, it is now significantly lower”.
Breitbart News
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