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Russian military suffers 427,000 casualties in 2024, Syrskyi claims

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Russian military suffers 427,000 casualties in 2024, Syrskyi claims
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi (R) visiting troops in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Dec. 30, 2024. (Oleksandr Syrskyi/Telegram)

Russian forces have suffered around 427,000 soldiers killed or wounded this year, mainly in battles in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Dec. 30.

"Russia continues to carry out constant 'human wave' assaults, suffering record losses. Last week, Russian forces have been losing around 1,700 people killed and wounded every day," Syrskyi said on Telegram after visiting units deployed in Donetsk Oblast.

Russian forces have been advancing at a rapid pace in late 2024, closing in on key Donetsk Oblast towns like Pokrovsk, Toretsk, or Kurakhove at the cost of record losses. Heavy battles continue also in Russia's Kursk Oblast, and Kyiv has warned about possible Russian advances in Ukraine's south.

Ukraine claimed that Moscow's troops suffered their highest casualties in November and December, putting Russia's overall losses throughout the full-scale war at nearly 790,000 by the end of the year.

The figures could not be independently verified. Moscow does not reveal the scale of its war losses but alleges they are lower than those of Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine had lost 43,000 soldiers on the battlefield since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, in addition to 370,000 injuries.

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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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