Bombshell Report Finds Putin Lost Twice the Number of Troops In January as the Soviets Lost In 10 Years Fighting In Afghanistan
(Bernat Armangue/Russian Presidential Press Service/AP photos)
of Russia Vladimir Putin According to CNN, in January 2026, there were twice as many troop losses as the Soviet Union lost in its entire operation in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Jim Sciutto This week.
Bloomberg reported the stunning numbers in its article on Thursday, noting that Russia is currently losing more men than it can recruit.
Alex Wickham, Bloomberg’s UK Political Editor shared: report He noted of Wickham continued:
This development indicates that Ukraine’s new strategy of killing more Russian soldiers than the Kremlin can afford through recruitment has achieved some success.
Officials said that although Russian forces suffered heavy losses in January, they were unable to make any significant gains in the field.
About 35,000 Russians were on KIA in December, Bloomberg previously reported; this was roughly equal to Moscow’s monthly hiring numbers.
However, in January, Russia’s losses exceeded the number of soldiers.
Bloomberg’s report puts Russia’s losses in January at just around 44,000 battlefield dead; it’s a number that Sciutto makes even more dazzling with additional context. Although estimates vary, the Soviet Union lost between 14,500 and 23,000 soldiers fighting in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
Sciutto He shared Wickham’s post and wrote: “Russia had twice as many KIA troops in a single month as the entire ten-year war in Afghanistan that helped destroy the USSR. The casualties are staggering.”
Wickham added some additional analysis on what Russia’s losses mean for the ongoing war in Ukraine: “While the situation is difficult for Ukraine, especially for unwarmed civilians, Russia is taking incredibly high casualties for no reward. Judging by the current course, it will still take Russia two years to completely capture Donetsk Oblast. That’s a clear sign of Putin’s ability to make a breakthrough on the ground, despite his narrative (expressed at times by Trump) that Russian victory is inevitable.” “This raises other questions and shows that Ukraine still has influence.”
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