Revealing the amount of money Russia spent on the war in Ukraine

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 Data released by the Russian Ministry of Finance shows that Moscow spends about 1 billion rubles, or $15.5 million, per hour of fighting in Ukraine.




Moscow Times quoted data released by the Russian Finance Ministry on May 17 as saying that Russia's defense budget has more than doubled since Russia began deploying military operations in Ukraine at the end of February.


In January, the Russian government spent 233.7 billion rubles on the military, then this amount increased to 369 billion rubles in February when Russia started moving troops and military equipment to the Ukrainian border.


In April, Russia's defense budget skyrocketed to about 628 billion rubles, or about 21 billion rubles a day. Before that, in April last year, this figure was 275 billion rubles.


According to Newsweek, on average, Russia spent nearly 1 billion rubles, equivalent to 15.5 million USD, for every hour of fighting in Ukraine.


The Moscow Times reported that from January to April this year, Russia spent a total of 1.681 trillion rubles on the military. This is three times the amount that Russia spends on education (517 billion rubles) and medical care (615 billion rubles).


The Russian Finance Ministry initially forecast a budget surplus of 1% of GDP, or 1.3 trillion rubles, for 2022, but now projects a budget deficit of at least 1.6 trillion rubles because of the spending support to cope with the impact of the unprecedented wave of economic sanctions that the West imposed on Moscow after the launch of the military operation in Ukraine.


The Russian government is expected to use the National Wealth Fund (NWF), a fund built from oil and gas revenues, to cover the budget deficit and also to support the value of stocks. and bonds, which have fallen sharply since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops and heavy armor into Ukraine at the end of February.


Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov admitted on May 18 that it is not easy to overcome Western sanctions, but with the right fiscal and budgetary policies, Russia has weathered this economic shock and maintain the stability of the financial system.


Minister Siluanov also denied that Russia was in danger of defaulting on its debt. Russia will pay its foreign debts in rubles if the US blocks Moscow's other options, he said.


The West has aggressively imposed sanctions on Russia after it launched a military offensive in Ukraine at the end of February. The sanctions mainly target Russia's energy industry such as oil and gas.


In response to Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree requiring "unfriendly" countries to pay for Russian gas purchases in rubles, declaring supply cuts to any country. which country does not meet this requirement. Putin also said that Europe will hurt itself, even "economically commit suicide" if it punishes Russia's energy industry because then energy prices will increase sharply and inflation will also increase.

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