After the war ended, the Soviet Union published figures of dead Soviet soldiers: the total was 13,836 men, an average of 1,512 men a year. According to updated figures, the Soviet army lost 14,427, the KGB lost 576, with 28 people dead and missing.
Material losses were as follows:
- 451 aircraft (includes 333 helicopters)
- 147 tanks
- 1,314 IFV/APCs
- 433 artillery guns and mortars
- 1,138 radio sets and command vehicles
- 510 engineering vehicles
- 11,369 trucks and petrol tankers
Evidence of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is still visible even twenty years later. Wrecked and blown petrol tankers litter the landscape at Bagram Air Field. Thousands of Soviet mines remain buried behind fences of barbed wire strung up to protect personnel from wandering into a mine field. Skeletons of buildings and half collapsed bunkers are scattered throughout as well. As hard as Afghan people try to put the memories of years of occupation behind them, reminders lay all around.
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