Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed 2024 as a "landmark" year for the invasion of Ukraine, claiming his army had the upper hand across the entire front.

Ukraine's daring drone strike hit a Russian National Guard base in Chechnya, escalating tensions to a boiling point. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed the attack and vowed swift revenge, ordering missile strikes on Kharkiv.

After failing to boost Russia’s fertility rate via pronatalist policies and to extend life expectancies, Putin “seems to have concluded that the only way to achieve a sizable increase in his population is by annexing and subordinating ethnically and culturally related neighbors, by force if necessary.”