An poster encouraging people to enlist in the Russian military glows at dawn in a residential district of Moscow, 4 December 2025. Photo: EPA / Maxim Shipenkov
Russia’s Defence Ministry has for the first time disclosed state expenditure “directly related to the special military operation”, Faridaily, an independent Telegram news channel founded by ex-BBC Russian journalist Farida Rustamova, reported on Wednesday.
According to the data disclosed by Russia’s Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, approximately 5.1% of Russia’s entire GDP in 2025 will be spent directly on the war, with wider Defence Ministry spending taking up 7.3% in total. Based on Economic Development Ministry forecasts for Russian GDP in 2025, the country’s total expenditure on the war in Ukraine will be approximately 11.1 trillion rubles (€118.2 billion) this year.
The decision to make sensitive military spending data public marks a change in tack by the Kremlin, which until recently only published federal spending on “national defence”, the vague definition of which made it difficult to identify exact figures for spending on the war, with related fields such as the research and development of news weapons also falling under the umbrella term, according to Faridaily.
Russia’s economy has undergone a fundamental restructuring since the start of the full scale invasion of Ukraine. In October, the Russian government submitted a draft budget for 2026–2028 to the State Duma that saw an unprecedented 38% of all federal spending earmarked for defence and domestic security.
Such moves have led to warnings that Russia may be painting itself into an economic corner, and that such high levels of defence and security spending are leading the economy to “rot from within”.
