Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] On the last day of the outgoing year, December 31, snowfalls are expected in Moscow, the air temperature may rise slightly above zero. This was reported on Sunday, December 29, by leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets.
"There will be snowfalls on December 31, and the thermometer will rise slightly above zero. By midnight, the snow storm will subside, and on New Year's Eve, there will be light frosts of -1…-6," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, snowfalls will resume on January 1 in the afternoon. On January 3, it will get colder to -6, and the next day the frosts will strengthen to -10 degrees. By Christmas, snowdrifts will increase to 22-27 cm, and the daytime temperature will be up to -8 degrees.
On January 9, the temperature background will finally return to the norm of the second month of winter, in the morning the thermometers will show readings of -8... -13, by the weekend the first -20 degrees of this season are not excluded.
As previously reported by Regnum News Agency, the chief specialist of the Moscow meteorological bureau, Tatyana Pozdnyakova, warned that on December 31 and January 1, the atmospheric pressure in the capital region will be very low, 10-12 degrees below normal, which may have a negative impact on the well-being of weather-sensitive people. Wind gusts may reach 12-14 meters per second, so it will seem that frost has come.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 19:00 Ukraine is moving towards fully providing its Defense Forces with domestically produced drones. This industry has reached unprecedented proportions this year, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said .
17.04 Since the beginning of the current day, 82 combat clashes have occurred on the front. More than a third of all battles are in the Pokrovsk direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in a report as of 16:00.
16.00 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and expressed condolences to him and the Azerbaijani people in connection with the crash of flight J2-8243 of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL). Russia must give a clear explanation and stop spreading disinformation, the Ukrainian leader noted.
15.25 Russian aggressors shelled the village of Belozerka in the Kherson region with artillery. So far, eight people are known to have been wounded, including two teenagers. All victims have been hospitalized.
14.58 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has apologised to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the crash of a plane in Kazakhstan. According to the Kremlin, the plane repeatedly attempted to land at Grozny airport, which at the time was "under attack by Ukrainian drones", and Russian air defence systems "repelled the attack".
14.41 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has instructed Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico to open a "second energy front against Ukraine." This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
13:45 An explosion at a railway station occurred in the Moscow region on December 27. As a result, carriages of a train used by the Russian army were destroyed. The GUR added that the scale of the damage inflicted on the aggressor is being determined.
12:59 Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky named Russia's losses in the war in 2024. They exceeded 421 thousand military personnel.
12.46 The supply of drones to the Defense Forces increased to a record high in 2024 - 19 times. This was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky.
11.26 The city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast is completely without power due to an emergency. This was reported by the Pokrovsk city military administration.
10:48 Defense forces hit a storage depot for "shahids" in the Oryol region. There are casualties among the occupiers.
9:56 The largest number of attacks over the past day, more than 50, occurred in the Pokrovsky direction. A total of 162 combat clashes were recorded on the front.
8.57 Partisans have reconnoitred the Kremniy EL plant in Bryansk, which supplies electronics to Russian missiles and fighters, which has already been attacked by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
7.54 Two cases of fire were recorded in Nikolaev on the night of December 28 as a result of a Russian strike using drones. The fire occurred at night in the Ingulsky district of the city. There were no casualties as a result of the drone strike.
7.25 Russia continues to scale up production of "shaheeds" ahead of the "winter campaign" against Ukraine in 2024-2025, despite sanctions and technical limitations. This is evidenced by a report by the Institute for the Study of War.
04.00 In the Voronezh region of the Russian Federation, a UAV attack caused a breakdown in the contact network on the railway. Local authorities announced train delays.
01.50 In Nikolaev, the roof of a multi-story building caught fire after an attack by enemy UAVs. The fire was soon extinguished. There were no reports of casualties.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent]The number of clashes on the front has increased to 133.
In particular, in the Kursk region, Ukrainian defenders repelled 16 attacks by Russian invaders today, 19 clashes are ongoing.
The enemy does not stop trying to advance deep into Ukrainian territory, the defense forces are holding back the invaders, inflicting significant losses on them. Today, the number of enemy attacks has increased to 133. This is stated in the General Staff report on Sunday, December 29.
The border areas of Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions continue to be subjected to Russian artillery shelling. A number of populated areas, including Timofeevka, Bachevsk, Senkovka, Berilovka and Aleksandrovka, suffered from shelling by the Russian army today.
In the Kharkov direction, the occupiers stormed the positions of our units in the Gatishche area.
The enemy attacked our positions in the Kupyansk direction six times. Ukrainian defenders repelled enemy assaults near Petropavlovka, Kucherivka and Lozovaya. One clash continues to this day.
In the Liman direction, enemy units attacked in the areas of the settlements of Grekovka, Zeleny Gai, Platonovka, Pervomayskoye, Nadezhda, Makeyevka, Terny, Yampolevka, Ivanovka and Belogorovka. Since the beginning of the day, Ukrainian soldiers have repelled 15 attacks, six clashes are still ongoing. In addition, enemy aircraft struck the settlement of Sergeyevka.
In the Seversky direction, since the beginning of the day, the enemy has made one futile attempt to push our defenders from their positions.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the invaders carried out five assault actions near Chasovy Yar. At present, two attacks by the occupiers are continuing.
In the Toretsk direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled two enemy attacks in the area of Shcherbinovka and Toretsk, and two more clashes are still ongoing.
In the Pokrovsk direction, since the beginning of the day, the occupiers have already made 26 attempts to push our defenders from their positions in the areas of the settlements of Zelenoe Pole, Vozdvizhenka, Mirolyubovka, Luch, Lisovka, Dachenskoye, Novy Trud, Volkovo, Solenoye, Novoolenovka, Novovasilovka and Novoye. The defense forces, holding back the enemy onslaught, have already repelled 22 enemy attacks in the direction. The enemy is suffering significant losses in manpower.
In the Kurakhovsky direction, the invaders attacked our units 16 times, trying to advance in the areas of the settlements of Ukrainka, Slavyanka, Petrovpavlovka, Kurakhovo and Dachnoye. Four battles are ongoing.
In the Vremovsky direction, the invaders carried out 17 attacks on Ukrainian troops near the settlements of Konstantinopolskoye, Yantarnoye, Uspenovka, Konstantinopol, Dachnoye and Privolnoye. Four combat clashes are ongoing, and enemy aircraft also struck the settlements of Zaporizhzhya, Razliv and Komar with guided bombs, dropping a total of nine guided bombs.
The enemy did not conduct any active operations in the Orekhov, Gulyai-Polye and Dnieper directions .
In Kursk region, Ukrainian defenders repelled 16 attacks by Russian invaders, 19 clashes continue, in addition, the enemy launched 152 artillery attacks.
Let us recall that earlier, Ukrainian military personnel destroyed a Russian TOR-M2 air defense system near the settlement of Zelenopil in the Zaporizhia region.
Linked article is available only through a VPN
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, the Sever Group of Forces hit formations of a mechanised brigade of the AFU and a territorial defence brigade close to Volchansk and Tikhoye (Kharkov region).
The enemy lost up to 40 troops, a motor vehicle, a 152mm D-20 gun, a 152mm Giatsint-S gun, and two 122mm D-30 howitzers.
One electronic warfare station and one ammunition depot were neutralised.
The Zapad Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line, inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of a tank brigade, two mechanised brigades of the AFU, a territorial defence brigade, and a national guard brigade near Kunye, Zapadnoye, Dvurechnaya, Glushkovka, Petropavlovka, Lozovaya (Kharkov region), Yampol, and Torskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
Four counter-attacks launched by AFU armed forces were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 420 troops, an armoured personnel carrier, six motor vehicles, a UK-made 155mm Braveheart self-propelled artillery system, and a 152mm D-20 gun.
One Anklav-N electronic warfare station and four field ammunition depots were destroyed.
The Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines, engaged formations of two mechanised brigades, a motorised infantry brigade, an airmobile brigade of the AFU, and a territorial defence brigade of the AFU close to Dalneye, Minkovka, Ostrovskogo, Yantarnoye, Razliv, Chasov Yar, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic).
Two enemy counterattacks were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 220 troops, a tank, a pick-up truck, a UK-made 155mm FH-70 howitzer, a U.S.-made 105mm M-119 gun, and an electronic warfare station.
The Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Novotroitskoye (Donetsk People's Republic) as a result of the successful offensive.
The Russian Armed Forces inflicted losses on the manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, a motorised infantry brigade, a naval infantry brigade, a territorial defence brigade, and an assault brigade of the National Police of Ukraine near Krasnoarmeysk, Zarya, Vozdvizhenka, Dzerzhinsk, Shevchenko, Dachenskoye, Novoolenovka, and Peschanoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
In addition, 11 AFU counterattacks were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 480 troops, three infantry fighting vehicles, five armoured fighting vehicles, five pick-up trucks, a Polish-made 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, a 152mm D-20 gun, a 152mm Msta-B howitzer, and a 122mm D-30 howitzer.
The Vostok Group of Forces advanced further to the depths of the enemy's defence and hit formations of a mechanised brigade, a motorised infantry brigade of the AFU, and a territorial defence brigade near Ravnopol and Zelenoye Pole of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Two counterattacks launched by enemy assault detachments were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 170 troops, a tank, three motor vehicles, a U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, a 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, and a 152mm D-20 gun.
The Dnepr Group of Forces engaged manpower and hardware a mechanised brigade, an infantry brigade of the AFU , and two territorial defence brigades close to Kamenskoye (Zaporozhye region), Antonovka, Sadovoye, and Mikhaylovka (Kherson region).
The AFU lost up to 70 troops, two motor vehicles, an electronic warfare station, and a Dutch-made Squire reconnaissance radar station.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack drones, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged the infrastructure of military airfields, the launch site of unmanned aerial vehicles as well as clusters of manpower and military hardware of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 137 areas.
Air defence units shot down 61 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 650 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 38,813 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,083 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,504 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,073 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,621 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise an enemy group, which broke into the territory of Kursk region.
During the offensive, the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on formations of a heavy mechanised brigade, four mechanised brigades, three air assault brigades, a naval infantry brigade, two territorial defence brigades, and an assault battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Daryino, Kurilovka, Leonidovo, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Maryevka, Nizhny Klin, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novaya Sorochina, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye. Three attacks of enemy assault groups were repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, and Artillery strikes engaged AFU manpower and hardware close to Aleksandria, Viktorovka, Guyevo, Kruglenkoye, Lebedevka, Nikolsky, Pogrebki, Russkoye Porechnoye, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, Sudzha as well as Belovody, Bogdanovka, Zhuravka, and Miropolye in Sumy region.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 400 troops during the day, three tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, an armoured personnel carrier, three armoured fighting vehicles, 14 motor vehicles, four artillery guns, a mortar, 13 FPV-drones, and an electronic warfare station.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 45,220 troops, 262 tanks, 203 infantry fighting vehicles, 142 armoured personnel carriers, 1,349 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,231 motor vehicles, 336 artillery guns, 42 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 83 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 28 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, six armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 20:18 The 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crew of the Center group of forces delivered an artillery strike on the UAV control point, the concentration of manpower and military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. 20:15 The Ukrainian Armed Forces unsuccessfully attempted to counterattack in the Krasnoarmeysk region of the DPR, said the head of the region, Denis Pushilin.
19:22 The Russian Armed Forces are fighting in the area of the Kurakhovskaya thermal power plant in the DPR, said the head of the region, Denis Pushilin.
18:03 In the Belgorod Region, a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone injured a man. The victim was taken to the district hospital with a tangential wound to the face. In addition, as a result of another attack by Ukrainian nationalists, a passenger car was damaged, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
17:42 A Ukrainian terrorist drone was shot down over the Oryol region, Governor Andrey Klychkov reported.
16:14 The ZALA UAV crew of the West Forces Group helped servicemen of the artillery unit of the West Forces Group to detect and destroy self-propelled artillery unit "Krab" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the SVO.
16:13 Four Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed over the Rostov, Bryansk and Oryol regions, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
16:05 A drone attack in the city of Salsk in the Rostov region resulted in minor damage to a building on the territory of a locomotive depot; no one was injured, acting head of the region Yuri Slyusar reported.
14:00 Air defense forces destroyed a Ukrainian Armed Forces missile in the Kursk region, the regional government.
13:57 Air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian drone in the Ust-Donetsk district of the Rostov region, said acting head of the region Yuri Slyusar.
12:18 New briefing from the Russian Ministry of Defense:
– Russian troops liberated the settlement of Novotroitskoye in the DPR;
– The Russian Armed Forces have damaged the infrastructure of military airfields of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the UAV launch site;
– The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 420 fighters and four field ammunition depots due to the actions of the West group of forces;
– Russian air defense systems shot down 61 Ukrainian drones in one day;
– The fighters of the “South” occupied more advantageous positions, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 220 soldiers;
– The “North” and “Dnepr” groups killed up to 110 Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters in one day.
12:15 Crew of the Su-34 multifunction supersonic fighter-bomber of the Aerospace Forces inflicted an attack on personnel and a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of the Kursk region.
11:24 Gladkov: The Ukrainian Armed Forces fired more than a hundred rounds at the Belgorod region in one day.
10:41 Crew of the Giatsint-B gun of the Dnepr troop groupstrucka Czechoslovakian self-propelled artillery unit "Dana" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, camouflaged in a forest belt, in the Orekhov direction.
10:35 A cleanup of soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has begun on the territory of the Kurakhovskaya thermal power plant in the DPR, law enforcement agencies told TASS.
“They started to clear out the Kurakhovskaya thermal power plant,” the security forces said.
They emphasized that the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in Kurakhovo is completely blocked.
09:37 Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have struck 21 settlements in the Belgorod region, one person was injured, the head of the region Gladkov reported.
09:33 Air defense systems destroyed two Ukrainian drones over Crimean territory at night, the Defense Ministry reported.
09:25 Strela-10 SAM system crews of the combined arms army of the West group of forces destroyed UAVs "Leleka-100", "Valkyrie", "Furia" and "Spectator" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of a special military operation.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] The Russian army completed all the tasks assigned to it in the SVO zone in 2024, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said on December 18.
Over the course of the year, the Russian Armed Forces liberated 189 settlements and seized the strategic initiative along the entire line of combat conflict, President Vladimir Putin reported at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board on December 16. Since then, over the past two weeks, the Russian army has liberated a number of other settlements in Donbass.
Defense Minister Andrey Belousov released detailed figures on the progress of the SVO. According to him, Russian troops have liberated 4.5 thousand square kilometers of territory since January 1, 2024. Less than 1% of the LPR territory and 25-30% of the DPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions remain under Kiev's control. At the same time, the speed of advance of Russian troops by the end of the year was about 30 square kilometers per day.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered huge losses in 2024: they are estimated at 560 thousand servicemen killed and wounded. And since the beginning of the Central Military District, the enemy's losses have approached a million people.
If 2023 can be considered the year of "positional warfare", then 2024 will be the beginning of a radical turning point in military operations. During the year, the Regnum news agency published weekly reports from the fronts, which regularly noted that Ukrainian troops were retreating from their positions, often without even attempting to counterattack.
This was largely the result of a series of successful operations by the Russian army. At the same time, problems for the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the beginning of 2024 came from an unexpected source. And throughout the year, the crisis snowballed.
By the beginning of 2024, the situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces was developing, if not favorably, then at least “normally,” Ukrainian sources noted. The Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to recover from the unsuccessful “counteroffensive” and replenish losses in manpower and armored vehicles through several waves of mobilization and new Western supplies.
However, since the beginning of the year, the situation with military aid supplies to Kyiv has deteriorated sharply. The Republican majority in the US Congress unexpectedly blocked all bills on providing military aid to Ukraine, citing the internal situation in the country.
Congress also stated that Ukraine had emptied the arsenals of the American army, so there could be no talk of any supplies. From February to April, political games continued in Washington, which directly affected the state of the Ukrainian army
According to the VSSU officers themselves, a total shell shortage began in the troops. The Ukrainian army, which had almost completely switched to "Western" caliber weapons, found itself dependent on foreign supplies, which were non-existent. Often, Ukrainian batteries did not receive artillery shells at all for several weeks.
Of course, the Russian army took advantage of this. In January 2024, the final assault on the Ukrainian fortified area in the Avdiivka region began. As a result of a series of tactical operations, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were forced to literally dig in in residential areas, hoping to tie down Russian troops with urban combat.
However, the Russian Armed Forces made an unexpected maneuver, cutting the enemy group in two, dividing the Ukrainian Armed Forces units operating in the area of the Coke Chemical Plant and directly in Avdiivka itself. In February, the Azov Regiment (a terrorist organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation) was transferred to the city, which, in fact, played the role of a fire brigade, allowing at least part of the garrison to be withdrawn from the emerging encirclement.
By February 17, the city came under the control of Russian troops. The liberation of Avdiivka made it possible to solve several problems at once. The enemy was driven out of the most powerful defensive node created on the outskirts of Donetsk over the course of five years. The successful completion of the Avdiivka operation also made it possible to launch an offensive in several directions at once and consistently drive the enemy out of other satellite cities of the DPR capital. Thus, the enemy lost even a hypothetical chance of breaking through to Donetsk.
ATTEMPTS TO STABILIZE THE FRONT
After the loss of Avdiivka, the Ukrainian command consistently tried to stabilize the front line. At first, the defense was organized along the suburbs of Avdiivka, then it was announced that the front would be tightly organized along the Volcha River.
However, the "Avdiivka effect" continued to operate. The units withdrawn from the city after long months of heavy fighting were not withdrawn for rotation to the rear, but, in fact, remained in the open field with orders to hold the defense. At the same time, the Ukrainian troops were only getting worse with shells, and their armored vehicle reserves were melting away.
As a result, throughout the spring and summer, the Ukrainian Armed Forces gradually rolled back further and further from Donetsk. The last attempt to stabilize the front was made in mid-summer, when Ukrainian troops rolled back to the “Poroshenko line” — a system of fortifications created back in 2015–2017.
However, the task of defending the old-new defensive line fell to newly formed units from among the mobilized. Often, the command of the Ukrainian brigades preferred to throw recruits into the most difficult sections of the front, which naturally led to the collapse of the "Poroshenko line".
The Ukrainian media reported a mass exodus from positions near the village of Novooleksandrivka by servicemen of the 53rd Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who simply refused to carry out the command's orders. The scandal, however, was quickly hushed up, and the Ukrainian command did not take any specific measures.
By autumn, the fighting gradually moved towards the city of Pokrovsk, which had a population of about one hundred thousand people as of 2014. Here, the Ukrainian Armed Forces again attempted to stabilize the front along the line of several large settlements: Kurakhovo - Gornyak - Selidovo - Novogrodovka.
Apparently, the enemy expected that the Russian army would launch a frontal assault, but this did not happen. Instead, the assault units wedged themselves between the enemy's defensive nodes, encircling them one after another. As a result, the Ukrainian Armed Forces refused to hold the settlements in principle, so the cities of Selidovo and Ukrainsk were surrendered almost without a fight.
By early October, Russian troops had also stormed the city of Ugledar, a strategically important defensive hub for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and had broken through to Kurakhovo in the north and the borders of the Zaporizhia region in the west.
THE ADVENTURE FAILED
The collapse of the front in the Pokrovsk direction and the failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of Chasov Yar, Toretsk and in the Donbass as a whole became possible, among other things, due to Kyiv’s strategic miscalculation.
In April, the Ukrainian Armed Forces got a chance to stabilize the front line after the US Congress unexpectedly became generous with military aid. Notably, in 2024, the US has not once reported deliveries of artillery, armored vehicles, or other offensive weapons to Ukraine. The aid packages only include ammunition, spare parts, and other consumables.
Probably, the Pentagon decided to keep the deliveries secret. What is characteristic is that Kyiv also stopped reporting on the arrival of new weapons. Although the residents of Poland have repeatedly recorded the movement of army columns with armored vehicles to the Ukrainian border.
By the beginning of summer, the Ukrainian Armed Forces also had a reserve of brigades that had undergone training at NATO training grounds and received new armored vehicles to replace those destroyed in the summer of 2023.
Rumors began to appear in the media and social networks that Kyiv was concentrating reserves for a new offensive on one of the sections of the front. However, instead of throwing elite units at the most problematic section of the front, Kyiv preferred to organize a new adventure.
In early August, a group of Ukrainian troops invaded the territory of the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region. The calculation of the Ukrainian command was extremely simple: to break through as far as possible into Russian territory with mobile groups of wheeled armored vehicles and create an operational crisis.
However, this did not happen. The Russian army units transferred to the new section of the front stopped the breakthrough. The groups of Ukrainian armored vehicles that had broken through were destroyed, and some of the vehicles got stuck in the fields and were captured as trophies.
According to the analytical portal Lostarmour, whose users study photo and video materials from the war zone, during 2024 the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 1,100 units of armored vehicles.
The statistics included, in particular, 14 Leopard 2 tanks (a total of 39 units out of 100 delivered were lost), 18 M1 Abrams tanks (a total of about 30 units were delivered), 56 Bradley IFVs (a total of 101 units were lost), 27 Stryker APCs (total losses - 41 units) and 27 Marder IFVs (total losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces - 41 units).
The data for 2024 also included 183 self-propelled artillery units (SPGs), mostly of NATO manufacture. The figures provided were obtained from open sources - in reality, the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces may be much higher.
The Kursk adventure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces led to the fact that at the decisive moment the troops in Donbass were left without reinforcements, and well-equipped and trained units of the Ukrainian army suffered heavy losses in a theater of military operations that was secondary for Kyiv.
As a result, by the end of 2024, Russian troops are a few kilometers from the borders of the Dnipropetrovsk region and are preparing to storm Pokrovsk, the last major stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the eastern part of Donbass.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Overall, it can be stated that 2024 was an extremely unsuccessful year for Ukrainian troops - in all respects. A number of tactical and strategic mistakes made by the Ukrainian Armed Forces command, high losses and low morale in the Ukrainian army units led to the collapse of the Ukrainian front in Donbas.
In the future, the Russian Armed Forces will have the opportunity to attack Zaporozhye and Kherson, since Kyiv has almost no reserves left for planning large-scale strategic operations.
If the current situation continues in 2025, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will suffer a crushing defeat on all fronts. Kyiv's opportunities to change the situation in its favor are currently exhausted.
[FoxNews] Russian President Vladimir Putin held a call with Azerbaijan's leader on Sunday
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Russia of executing an "absurd" cover-up after its air defenses allegedly "shot down" a passenger plane last week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the "tragic incident" this weekend, but the Kremlin has not formally stated that Russian air defenses shot down the plane. At least 38 people were killed in the incident.
"Our plane was shot down by accident," Aliyev told state television on Sunday. "Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only absurd versions from Russia."
"We witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter," he added.
A Kremlin statement said the incident occurred after Russian air defenses engaged with Ukrainian attack drones, but did not outright state that Russian forces had shot down the plane.
Aliyev is a close ally with Putin's regime, and the pair held a phone call regarding the incident on Sunday. Neither party has released details of their conversation.
Crew members and survivors of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190-passenger jet say they heard at least one loud bang before the aircraft crashed on Christmas day.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
