Ukraine: Amid ongoing war, Russia allocates one-third of the budget for defense
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As the ongoing war against Ukraine enters the third year in February 2025—unless a ceasefire comes into effect by then—Russia has hiked its defense budget by about USD 28 billion to a total of USD 126 billion, which is one-third of the overall budget for the next year, the media reported on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the budget for 2025 on Sunday.
It includes record-breaking spending on military needs. The budget allocated about USD 126 billion (13.5 trillion rubles) to national defense, which reportedly amounts to 32.5 percent of the total government spending and over 6 percent of Russia’s total gross domestic product (GDP).
Last year, Moscow allocated 28.3 percent of total spending to defense needs. The planned Russian spending on war and law enforcement agencies surpassed the country’s combined expenditures on education, healthcare, social policy, and the national economy.
The new three-year budget, however, projects a slight reduction in military spending for 2026 and 2027, with USD 114.9 billion allocated for 2026 and USD 122.4 billion for 2027. Lawmakers in both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and Federation Council, had already approved the budget plans last month.
The Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022, remains Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War (1939-45) and has drained both Moscow and Kyiv’s resources.
Although Russian forces are bigger and better equipped, and in recent months even pushed Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas, the massive spending on military needs has put a severe strain on its economy and population.
Inflation is running high in Russia which is also facing labour as well as soldier shortage. To control the spiraling situation, the Russian Central Bank, in October, raised interest rates to 21 percent, the highest in decades.
Although Ukraine has remained on the back foot in the war in terms of material and manpower vis-à-vis Russia, it has been getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies. On Monday, Germany, one of Ukraine’s major backers, pledged more than half a billion dollars in new military equipment, scheduled to be delivered this month.
