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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Forces fighting for Moscow suffered far more casualties in 2024 than they did in the previous year, according to Ukraine's commander-in-chief who outlined the price Russian troops are paying for President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Monday that Russia had suffered over 434,000 casualties last year, a big spike from Ukraine's tally of Russian casualties in 2023.
Accurate figures for those killed and injured are difficult to assess with both sides remaining tight-lipped about their losses.
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Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
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Why It Matters
Russia has battlefield momentum but its recent territorial gains have been at the expense of high personnel losses due in part to so-called "meat assaults."
While Moscow says that its mobilization policies are replenishing troop numbers, continuous high numbers raise questions about the sustainability of Vladimir Putin's invasion. Meanwhile, Ukraine faces troop shortages and problems with mobilization and the high numbers of desertions.
What to Know
Ukraine's armed forces provide daily updates of their estimate of Russian casualties which include both those killed and injured.
Kyiv's latest estimate on Tuesday listed 1,600 Russian casualties over the previous 24 hours taking the total since the war started on February 24, 2022 to 822,030.
But Syrskyi's revelation to Ukrainian TV channel TSN outlined the vast extent of Russia's personnel losses over the last year.
He said Moscow forces had suffered 434,000 casualties last year fueled by assault on cities, such as toward Pokrovsk, the capture of which is key to Moscow's goal to control the whole of the Donetsk region.
This was about 180,000 more than Kyiv's estimate for 2023 of 252,570 Russian casualties, although Ukraine did not break this tally further into how many had been killed and how many had been wounded.
Ukraine's daily tally used the word "liquidated" until August 23, 2023 without specifying if Russian troops were injured or had killed. Since then, Kyiv has referred to "approximate losses of the enemy," which includes those killed in action and wounded.
Syrskyi also said on Monday that around 150,000 Russian troops had been killed last year and that 2024 had cost Russian more in personnel than the previous two years of the war combined.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Monday that Russia's military command was likely willing to accept record levels of casualties especially between September and November for larger territorial gains from attritional assaults.
Russia has not updated its tally of 6,000 killed soldiers since September 2022. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said in December that 43,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and 370,000 injuries had been recorded although this figure included soldiers who had been hurt more than once.
What People Are Saying
General Oleksandr Syrskyi told TSN: "This year of combat has cost them more than the previous two years of the war combined."
The ISW said January 20: "Russian military command was likely willing to accept record levels of casualties in Fall–Winter 2024, especially from September to November 2024...to achieve relatively larger territorial gains from continued infantry-led, attritional assaults."
What Happens Next
Russian high troop losses are likely to continue and the ISW reported Moscow was boosting its numbers by recruiting women into voluntary detachments.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has to tackle its own manpower issues, with Syrsky saying that current mobilization does not fulfill the armed forces' needs. Ukrainian commanders have reportedly been arrested recently and while the details of the charges are not yet entirely clear, one was arrested for not informing the authorities about a mass desertion of troops.
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