Zelenskyy: Russia Lost Twice as Many Troops in One Month as USSR Did in 10 Years in Afghanistan

Om January 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Russian forces suffered approximately 35,000 casualties—killed and severely wounded—in December 2025 alone, highlighting the effectiveness of Ukraine’s evolving drone warfare capabilities.

“During December, our units achieved a result of 35,000 eliminated occupiers. These are killed and severely wounded soldiers. To put that into perspective, during ten years of war in Afghanistan, the Soviet army lost half that number,” Zelenskyy said during the launch of a new initiative to assess the performance of Ukraine’s drone units.

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He stressed that the Ukrainian military must reach a level where Russia’s monthly losses exceed its ability to replenish troops. According to Zelenskyy, an optimal monthly target would be the elimination of 50,000 Russian soldiers.

“This is undoubtedly a difficult goal, but it is the threshold where Russia will begin to reconsider what it is doing and why it is fighting,” he said.

Earlier this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelenskyy stated that monthly Russian fatalities have increased from 14,000 to 35,000 over the past year. He added that although Russia currently mobilizes 40,000–43,000 troops per month, it has begun losing up to 45,000.

“Of those 43,000, about 10–15% desert, and there are wounded as well… You can see that their army is no longer growing, thanks to our drone technologies and drone operators,” Zelenskyy noted.

Earlier, it was reported that North Korea is constructing a museum dedicated to the country’s soldiers who died while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

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