The Ukraine War Is Far More Bloody Than We Realize

      I am proud to be a lifetime member of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). To earn membership, one must have served honorably in the US armed services and been present in a war zone for at least 91 days. Their latest member magazine published some authoritative statistics on the Vietnam war that I wish to share with you now:

1) 9,087,000 served on active duty from 1964 to 1973.

2) 8,744,000 were on active duty from August 5, 1964, to March 28, 1973.

3)               3,403,100 men and women including 514,300 offshore personnel served in Vietnam.

4)               2,594,000 men and women served within the border of Vietnam from January 1, 1965, to March 28, 1973. 50,000 US troops served in Vietnam from 1960 to 1964.

5)               Total deaths were 58,275. 47,528 men and women died due to hostile action. 10,747 died due to non-hostile actions.

6)               303,704 were wounded. 153,329 required hospitalizations.

7) 75,000 were severely disabled. 23,214 were 100% disabled. 5,283 lost limbs. 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. These disability figures were much higher than in World War II or Korea.

8) The kill rate percentage was 58,275/3,403,100=1.712%. 58,275/2,594,000=2.246%.

9) The wounded rate was 303,704/3,403,100=8.92%.

303,704/2,594,000=11.707%.

Combined statistics for dead and wounded:

58,275+303,704=361,979/3,403.100=10.63% 303,704/2,594,000=11.707%

361,979/2,594,000=13,954% This is not consistent with a model of 5% killed and wounded. There are 5.2 wounded for each man or woman killed. Please bear in mind that during this same time span some 3.25 million Vietnamese military personnel and civilians were killed. Accurate statistics on those wounded are hard to come by.

   Now let us go forward to the current war in Ukraine. Accurate statistics on military killed and wounded in battle are hard to come by. Even elite US and European intelligence agencies have a difficult time getting accurate numbers. One of our readers, Denys Davydov spends a lot of time doing in-depth research to develop numbers. He goes to all sorts of obscure sources to get information. A picture emerges as follows:

 

Ukraine armed forces size: 204,000. Deaths for the last 10 months are roughly 100,000.

 

Russian military personnel in Ukraine: 200,000. Deaths for the last 10 months are roughly 100,000.

 

Casualties on both sides could range from 300,000 to 520,000. Massive replacements had to be found to take the place of those lost.

 

    These losses are like those suffered during the Iran/Iraq war during the late 1980s and World War I.