1/ In January 2026, Ukraine reported killing 34,000 Russian soldiers – on average 1,096 a day, or 7,846 per week. Thousands of Ukrainians have likely died in the same period. Last month in Ukraine was much bloodier than the average monthly death toll at Auschwitz. ⬇️
2/ The extraordinary lethality of the Ukraine war stands out in comparison to recent wars and mass killings:
🔺 At least 7,000 people are reported to have been killed in the recent Iranian uprising. More have died in Ukraine in each week of last month.
3/🔺 At least 84,000 people died in the Gaza war between 7 October 2023 and 10 October 2025 – an average of 3,500 per week. The number of weekly fatalities in the Ukraine war last month alone was more than twice Gaza's monthly average.
4/ 🔺 8,372 Bosnian Muslims were killed at Srebrenica in July 1995 – at the time, the worst European massacre since the Holocaust. Ukraine has seen an equivalent of a Srebrenica for each week of January 2026.
5/ 🔺 During the 8-year long Iran-Iraq war, monthly fatalities ranged from an estimated 1,216 to 2,432 per month. That is equivalent to between two or three days' fatalities in Ukraine last month.
6/🔺 At the peak of the Vietnam War in 1969, the US lost an average of 521 soldiers a month. Russia lost on average twice that number on every single day of January 2026.
7/ 🔺 During World War II, the monthly number of deaths across the entire Nazi concentration camp system (excluding the extermination camps) was usually far lower than in Ukraine in January 2026.
8/🔺 The SS recorded camp system-wide death tolls between July 1942 and June 1943. In no month were more than 12,217 deaths recorded – only a little more than a third sustained by the Russians in January 2026.
9/🔺 Dachau concentation camp became infamous for the huge numbers of deaths recorded in the final four months of the war in 1945. However, the number of fatalities in that time was "only" 2,600 to 4,000 per month – equivalent to a few days' worth of Russian losses.
10/🔺 Even at Auschwitz, the most notorious of the extermination camps, monthly deaths were usually considerably less than those recorded in Ukraine in January 2026. During the 56 months it was in operation, an average of 19,500–20,000 were killed per month.
11/ In short, the Ukraine war is currently incurring a monthly dead toll far higher than anything seen since 1945, outside of outright genocides such as in Rwanda. Its only real point of comparison is the two World Wars, which – not coindentally – saw intense fighting in Ukraine.
12/ It's also worth noting that the Russians, according to most estimates, have suffered far higher losses than the Ukrainians – and many of these losses have been born disproportionately by economically disadvantaged ethnic minorities. It's a self-genocide for Russia. /end
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.