Russia Is Suffering Similar Per Month Losses in Ukraine the US Was Suffering in Vietnam

At the height of Vietnam

Anti-Empire 5 May 22 1060 1

On March 25, after about a month of fighting, Russian MoD admitted to having suffered 1351 killed in Ukraine.

12 months of such losses would amount to over 16,200 dead.

In its worst Vietnam year the US suffered 16,900 dead in 1968.

By April 25, after about two months of fighting, local Russian authorities and media had publicized the deaths of at least 1744 Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

12 months of such losses would amount to 10,500 dead.

In its second and third worst years in Vietnam — 1969 and 1967 —the US lost 11,800 and 11,400 dead respectively.

On a per month basis publicized Russian losses are on the level the US was sustaining in Vietnam.

However both Russian numbers are significant undercounts. The MoD number doesn’t include Rosgvardia and unrecovered dead. While the April 25 number suffers from many Russian regions (Moscow, Sankt-Petersburg…) not publicizing their dead, and from delay when obituaries are publicized by local media. (Ie many will have died before April 25 but won’t be in the local paper until weeks later.)

Also, US losses in Vietnam were being inflicted on a much larger force. At one point the US had 500,000 men in Vietnam*, whereas some 160,000 Russians are involved in the war with Ukraine (many of them not actually in Ukraine).

Another difference is that the US had a draft and was able to easily replace losses which for Putin’s Russia which will not even touch serving conscripts is not the case.

The Soviet Union lost about 15,000 dead in ten years of Afghanistan. Or about 1,500 per year. Russia’s rate of loss in Ukraine is ten times higher than that.

None of this includes deaths suffered by Donetsk and Lugansk republics.

*Albeit to be perfectly honest, it is said that of the 500,000 Americans in Vietnam only 80,000 were combat troops. That is about the number of Russian troops in maneuver battalions. So in that sense the wars are similar. That is to say they are being carried on the backs of a similar number of troops.