Russia commenced 2024 with the biggest air and drone strikes since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, attacking civilians and infrastructure in cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv, as ammunition for Western-provided air defense runs out and debates continue in Washington on whether to provide more.

With inflated expectations on territorial progress and shifted attention to the Israel-Hamas war, international media has largely deemed the ongoing counteroffensive a failure and the war on Ukraine a stalemate. However, contrary to expectations, Ukrainian strikes into the Black Sea and the Russian navy headquarters in Sevastopol have crippled Russian naval efforts in the region and broken the long-standing blockade on Ukrainian trade. As recently as late December, Ukrainian drone and missile strikes hit and destroyed key Russian warships and landing craft in occupied Crimea. Additionally, the Ukrainian military continues to repel Russian forces in cities in the east and south, inflicting unsustainable manpower and equipment attrition on the Russian military.