On Sunday, Ukrainian forces indicated they were facing “exhausting confrontations” with the Russians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin took stock of the 2024 fighting in Ukraine this Monday, December 16, welcoming the pace of the advance of his troops and to have “l’initiative” on the entire front at the end of this “pivotal year”.
Less numerous and less well armed, the Ukrainian forces are gradually losing groundbut at a pace that has accelerated since the fall. Russian soldiers are now at the gates of Pokrovsk, a large mining city and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine that they have been trying to take for months.
“Russian troops have the strategic initiative across the entire line of contact“, assured Vladimir Putin in a speech to the main executives of his Ministry of Defense. He thus claimed the “liberation”according to the vocabulary used by Russia to designate the capture of Ukrainian towns and villages, “of 189 localities“ courant 2024. “I would like to emphasize that the past year has been a pivotal year in terms of achieving the objectives of the special military operation,” he added, again using the euphemism required to mention the assault on Ukraine.
725 km² of progress in November, a record for the Russians
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, who spoke after the Russian president's speech, indicated that Russia had taken 4,500 km² of Ukrainian territory this yearand was currently advancing “30 km² per day“. The Russian army advanced across 725 km² of Ukrainian territory during the month of November, its largest territorial gain in a month since March 2022 and the first weeks of its large-scale assault, according to an analysis by the AFP based on data from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The previous record dated from October, the advance was then 478 km².
As a reminder, Ukraine is a country much larger than France with an area of more than 600 000 km² of which Russia controls nearly 20 %, Crimea included. The Russian army also claimed this Monday the conquest of a new locality, Yelyzavtivka, located about ten kilometers south of Kourakhové, an industrial city in the East. The day before, it had claimed the villages of Vessely Gaï, south of Kourakhové, and that of Pushkiné, south of Pokrovsk.
“Exhausting confrontations” with the Russians
The Ukrainian force grouping in Khortytsia reported on Sunday “exhausting confrontations” in the surrounding area and in the town of Kourakhové, as well as further north in Tchassiv Yar.
kyiv is struggling to contain Russian troops and is demanding increased support from its Western allies. But the sustainability of this assistance, crucial since the start of the Russian offensive almost three years ago, is not guaranteed, with the return to power of Donald Trump in January in the United States, which until now was the main donor of Ukraine.
Moscow and kyiv are trying to influence the Republican's positionagainst the backdrop of possible negotiations between the two parties which could begin next year. Donald Trump has already called for a “immediate ceasefire” and to talks, so thatEuropeans and Ukrainians fear he could force kyiv into major concessions and grant a military and geopolitical victory to the Kremlin.
“The possibility of armed conflict with NATO in Europe”
During his speech, the master of the Kremlin, once again, on Monday accused the NATO countries, allies of Ukraine, of constituting a threat to Russia. “NATO countries are increasing their military spending. Alliance intervention groups have been formed and assembled near Russia's borders“, he accused, while the Alliance strengthened its presence in Eastern Europe due to the Russian assault against its neighbor.
The Russian Defense Minister said his army must preparer “to all possible developments in the situation, including the possibility of armed conflict with NATO in Europe in the decades to come. Russia rejects the term invasion with regard to its assault on Ukraine, and believes that its offensive aimed to push back NATO, which kyiv wants to join and curb an existential threat.
A considerable increase in Russian weapons
In this context, Vladimir Putin praised once again on Monday the considerable increase in arms production in the country, and called to continue. “All issues relating to the mass production and deployment of national systems to carry out strikes, including hypersonic systems, must be resolved”he said.
Furthermore, the master of the Kremlin also indicated that his Russian forces were starting to use artificial intelligence-assisted systems (IA). “Soldiers receive advanced robotic systems, some of which use AI technologies,” he said.
