Russia’s budgetary expenditures on the war in Ukraine in the first half of 2025 set a new record of 8.484 trillion rubles.
That is according to Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, who calculated the figures based on data from the Russian Finance Ministry, Ukrinform reports, citing The Moscow Times.
Kluge’s calculations show that, compared with the same period in 2024, spending on the army and weapons production increased by 31%. Compared with January-June 2023, it grew by 95%, and compared with the first year of the war, it tripled.
Illustration: The Moscow Times
On average, Russia’s “military machine” consumed 1.4 trillion rubles per month, or 46.9 billion rubles per day — a sum exceeding the annual budgets of some of the country’s poorest regions: 28.8 billion rubles in Kalmykia, 30.5 billion in Karachay-Cherkessia, and 42.7 billion in the Altai Republic.
Kluge also noted that 62% of Russia’s military budget is classified: over the first six months of the year, 3.203 trillion rubles were spent under open defense articles, while 5.281 trillion rubles went through “shadow” channels. Over the past year, the classified budget grew by 41%, and compared to the first six months of the war, it increased nearly fourfold.
Between 2022 and 2024, the Russian government spent over 20 trillion rubles on the army and state defense orders. The 2025 budget allocated an additional 13.5 trillion rubles under “national defense” — 30% of all expenditures, the highest share since the Soviet era.
Including the national security category, which covers the budgets of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardia, the Investigative Committee, and intelligence agencies, about 40% of the state budget — or roughly 8% of GDP — was devoted to security forces.
Source: Russia spends 47 billion rubles daily on war in Ukraine
