Besides costing more than 200,000 men, the war in Ukraine is proving extremely expensive for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has had to spend tens of billions of dollars in the war so far but has nothing to show for it.
Despite the lack of success, Moscow is spending, even more, this year on its military in a desperate attempt to sustain a losing war.
Russia’s 2023 Military Budget and Ukraine War
According to the June report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia’s 2023 defense budget is around 6.6 trillion rubles, or about $85 billion).
But it is likely that Moscow spends more on defense through classified budgets.
“Russia’s true military expenditure remains uncertain due to a lack of transparency, including the use of classified budget lines, which account for approximately 22 percent of the Russian Government’s total budget,” the British Military Intelligence assessed in a recent estimate of the war.
Ukraine takes up most of Russia’s defense budget. After all, the Kremlin has deployed the majority of its units in Ukraine, weakening Russia’s national security.
“In addition, Russia almost certainly faces extra direct budgetary defense costs due to the war, including security expenses in the occupied regions and defensive measures in regions bordering Ukraine,” the British Military Intelligence added.
The Russian military, moreover, has suffered such extremely heavy losses in weapon systems that replenishing its stocks with modern systems would require an extremely large amount of money.
The new budget is approximately 4.4 percent of the Russian gross domestic product and considerably higher than in 2021, the year before the invasion of Ukraine, when it was 3.6 percent of the GDP.
When it comes to the United States and NATO, the official Russian defense budget holds its own. Indeed, with $85 billion, the Russian military would second only to the U.S., though it would be a very faraway second because the U.S. military has a budget of $860 billion. But still, Russia would surpass the West’s major military powers, including Germany ($70 billion), the United Kingdom ($69 billion), and France ($58 billion).
Russian Casualties
Russian forces on the ground continue to sustain a steady rate of losses every day. Since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in early June, the Russian forces have been taking an average of more than 500 losses daily.
On the 505th day of the conflict, Moscow remains in a tight spot, unable to attack and struggling to hold on to the occupied parts of Ukraine.
Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Wednesday, Ukrainian forces have killed and wounded approximately 235,530 Russian troops.
Destroyed equipment includes: 322 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 310 attack and transport helicopters, 4,090 tanks, 4,402 artillery pieces, 7,990 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 674 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 18 boats and cutters, 6,978 vehicles and fuel tanks, 415 anti-aircraft batteries, 3,726 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 647 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 1,271 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.
A 19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
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