Russia has lost more soldiers in Ukraine than the US did during whole Vietnam War

Ukraine's armed forced have claimed Russia has lost more soldiers amid the ongoing conflict than the US did when at war in Vietnam.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border into Ukraine on 24 February.

However, just four days in and Ukrainian officials estimated over 4,300 Russian troops had already been killed, with intelligence suggesting Putin massively 'overestimated' the capabilities of his army.

Now, over seven months since the invasion first began, Ukrainian officials have released an updated claim that Russia has lost more soldiers than the United States lost in the whole of the Vietnam war.

Since the conflict in Ukraine first began, the Kremlin has shown a reluctance in confirming how many fatalities it has suffered.

Putin was even recently called out by members of Russian parliament to 'stop lying' to the Russian public about just how poorly the war is going.

However, Russian state media briefly published death toll numbers for the country back in March and Ukrainian authorities have continued to release frequent estimates of the death tolls.

Viktor Karasev/ Alamy Stock Photo

Today (Monday, 17 October), Defense of Ukraine took to Twitter (of all places) to release its latest statistics.

According to the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine, Russia has lost a total of 65,320 military personnel from 24 February to 17 October. Quite how they came to that exact number is beyond us, but all is fair in love and war, as they say.

As well as people, Ukraine also claims Russia has lost a total of 2,537 tanks, 5,205 armoured combat vehicles, 1,599 artillery, 366 multiple launch rocket systems and 187 air defence systems.

268 military jets, 242 helicopters, 1,241 drones and 316 cruise missiles are also reported as having been lost by Russia, as well as 16 warships and boats, 3,969 vehicles and fuel tanks and 144 special equipment.

@DefenceU/ Twitter

Alongside posting the report, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine also captioned the image with a quote by Miguel de Cervantes, probably in an attempt to confirm the seriousness of this situation.

De Cervantes is an early modern Spanish writer who is best known for authoring Don Quixote.

The quote reads: "He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all."

@DefenceU/ Twitter

If Ukraine authorities are correct in their claim Russia has lost 65,320 soldiers, then the country has lost more military personnel than the US did during the entire war in Vietnam.

The Vietnam war took place from 1 November, 1955 until 30 April, 1975. Amid the conflict between the North and South of the country, the US sided with the South and provided them with financial and military aid.

According to Research at the National Archives: "The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War."

Subsequently, if Ukraine's statistics prove true, Russia has lost 7,100 more troops than the US did in the whole of the Vietnam war - 7,100 more troops across seven months compared to America's eight-year intervention in Vietnam - and the conflict in Ukraine is still ongoing.

Russia has yet to confirm its exact losses.

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