2024 has marked another bloody year of the war in Ukraine, with the swiftest advances made by Russian forces encroaching on more territory in the country’s east since the start of the invasion more than two years ago. Near the key thermal power plant in the town of Kurakhove, to the eastern region’s bastion of Pokrovsk, the losses have mounted – in the village after village, a series of broken homes and another place marked off the map, in the eyes of soldiers who are battling to save each square meter of their land without the sufficient weapons needed to beat Russian forces back. Ukraine’s incursion in to Russian Kursk territory over the summer is arguably what led to a series of defeats for Ukraine in the following months. In 2024, Russian forces have taken nearly 4,000km2 of Ukrainian territory, more than seven times what they achieved the year before. Families have had to flee quickly, soldiers have had to change their positions every few days as they retreat, and there are only short goodbyes to the places that were once theirs.
