Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues to send Russian troops’ casualty rate to staggering new heights, according to UK intelligence.
The Russian president – known for his “meat-grinder” tactics – is pushing his forces forward at the fastest speed of the war yet in an attempt to seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
This has resulted in intense losses for the Russian army.
The UK’s ministry of defence (MoD) said in its latest update on X (formerly Twitter) that 429,660 Russian army personnel were killed or wounded in 2024 during the conflict.
That’s approaching double the amount of casualties (252,940) recorded in 2023 by the Ukrainian General Staff reporting.
That means Russia is estimated to have suffered more than 790,000 casualties since the war began.
“December 2024 was likely the most costly month of the war for Russia with a total of 48,670 casualties reported by the Ukraine General Staff,” the MoD said – around 3,000 more than were recorded in November.
It added: “December was the sixth straight month that Russian Forces have suffered an increase in monthly total losses.”
And the Kremlin’s troops are suffering every day, according to the MoD, which reported: “The average daily Russian casualties reached a new monthly war high during December 2024.
“The average daily loss rate was 1,570, the fifth straight month that Russian Forces have sustained new war high average daily losses.”
The MoD said December 19 marked a “new war high of 2,200 losses in a single day”.
It also predicted that this trend will continue, at least for the next month.
The intelligence officers said: “Russia will highly likely continue to experience high casualty rates over January 2025 with continued dismounted infantry attacks on multiple axes.”
It’s thought Putin is accelerating the push forward into Ukraine before Trump gets into office because the president-elect is expected to pressure the Kremlin into making a peace deal with Kyiv.
The Republican has not yet outlined how he would stop the war on his first day in office – as he has promised to do – but there is speculation he would encourage Ukraine to cede any occupied land to Russia.
Despite record-breaking losses on the frontline, Putin has refused to use conscription to bolster his army out of fear he could lose public support for the war.
Instead he turned to his ally North Korea and may be using as many 10,000 of Pyongyang’s troops to fight Ukraine.