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)

Russia’s Vladimir Putin lost twice as many soldiers in January of 2026 as the Soviet Union lost during its entire campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s, pointed out CNN’s Jim Sciutto this week.

Bloomberg reported on the stunning numbers in a Thursday article, noting that Russia is now losing more men than it is able to recruit.

Alex Wickham, the UK Political Editor for Bloomberg, shared the report on X and noted, “ Russia sustained around 9,000 more battlefield losses than it was able to replace in January, according to assessments from Western officials.” Wickham continued:

The development signals Ukraine’s new strategy of killing more Russian soldiers than the Kremlin can replenish via recruitment is having some success.

Russian forces were unable to achieve any significant gains on the ground in January even as they took these very heavy losses, the officials said.

About 35,000 Russians were KIA in December, roughly equal to Moscow’s monthly recruitment, Bloomberg previously reported.

But in January Russian losses exceeded recruitment.

Bloomberg’s reporting put Russian losses for January just around 44,000 dead on the battlefield, a number Sciutto made even more eye-popping with added context. The Soviet Union lost some 14,500 to 23,000 troops between 1979 and 1989 fighting in Afghanistan, although estimates vary.

Sciutto shared Wickham’s post and wrote, “In a single month, Russia had twice as many soldiers KIA as its entire ten-year war in Afghanistan, which helped bring down the USSR. The losses 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 civilians without heating, Russia is taking incredibly high losses for no reward. At the current rate it will still take Russia two years to fully take Donetsk Oblast, according to the assessments. It raises further questions for Putin’s ability to make a breakthrough on the ground, despite the Russian narrative – at times echoed by Trump – that its victory is inevitable. It suggests Ukraine still has leverage in negotiations.”

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