Estimates suggest Russia has spent a quarter of its annual budget on the Ukraine war in the last nine months since Moscow began its invasion in February this year. Russia has spent $82 billion on its invasion, according to Forbes.
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Russia’s budget revenues last year amounted to £340 billion which means that Moscow has spent a quarter of its annual budget on the war. This estimate only includes the direct costs of Russia’s military operation, and does not include defence spending or economic losses caused by Western sanctions.
Forbes also said that Russia’s federal budget revenues from the export of oil and gas are decreasing, after it lost most of the European gas market. It is happening as the cost of war expenses doubled this autumn, with the conflict requiring at least $10 billion a month.
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The expenses incurred by the invasion include salaries for troops, compensation for the dead and wounded, buying or producing weapons and ammunition, and replacing lost equipment.
Forbes said the amount of compensation for the dead and wounded was estimated at more than $3.5 billion in the last month of the war. It calculated Russia used 10,000 to 50,000 shells per day, with the average price of a Soviet-caliber shell at about $1,000. Therefore, Russia’s spending is estimated at more than $5.5bn (£4.5bn) on artillery supplies alone.
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Meanwhile, Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed 15 civilians as engineers across the country sought to restore heat, water and power to major cities. Russian air strikes in recent weeks have brought Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to its knees as winter approaches.
