The Russians took 4,168 square kilometers of Ukraine in 2024, an area equivalent to the area of Boden municipality. Several localities have fallen into their hands, including the important communities of Avdijivka and Vuhledar.
But no major cities were taken by the Russians, whose conquests mostly consisted of open fields and smaller towns. Far from all the places they set their sights on have fallen.
Ukraine still controls the threatened Pokrovsk and holds its ground in Tjasiv Yar and Toretsk, two cities in the Donetsk region that have come under intense attack. And at Vovtyansk, the center of the Russian attack on the Kharkiv region in May, the Russians were stopped by the Ukrainians, who a few months later surprisingly entered the Russian Kursk region.
Of the four illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, Russia controls only Luhansk. If the Russian pace of conquest continues, it would take them another two years to take the entire Donetsk region, according to the think tank ISW.
Massive losses
The majority of the Russian conquests took place during the fall, but at a high cost. Ukraine has claimed that Russia lost 427,000 troops in 2024 – more than half of the total Russian losses since the 2022 invasion, according to them.
The figure should be viewed with great caution, but the fact that the autumn has been extremely bloody compared to previous years has been supported by independent Russian actors.
And not only Russians fall. Thousands of North Koreans are said to have been injured and killed in Kursk, according to Ukraine. The Ukrainians have said 43,000 of their own soldiers were killed and 370,000 wounded.
North Korea’s direct involvement is said to have been one of the reasons why the United States, Great Britain and France finally gave the green light last fall for the use of long-range robots against targets in Russia.
At the same time, Russian projectiles have rained daily over Ukraine. Tens of thousands of civilians have been injured and killed while millions have been affected by the attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Talk of peace
Alongside the brutal fighting, there has been movement in the diplomatic arena. More people are talking about peace, not least because of Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States. Discussions are ongoing about what a solution could look like to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the future.
The Ukrainians have softened their demands, but Russia has not. Vladimir Putin has long claimed that he is ready for talks, while the Kremlin and himself have said that Russia does not intend to compromise.