Krystyna Kazakova23:58, 27.07.26

Total spending since 2022 on the war with Ukraine has cost Russian taxpayers 53.079 trillion rubles, or $746.6 billion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, July 27, that military spending will remain a priority when preparing the budget for the next three years, The Moscow Times reported .

The publication shared that at a meeting with deputies of the State Duma of the 8th convocation, Putin accused the West of launching a “Russophobic machine”, “world records” in terms of sanctions, and said that “no one and never” would be able to “break the people of Russia.”

“Our political system and institutions of power are being formed on sovereign principles in full accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and are ready to defend the country, capable, together with society, of resolutely repelling any hostile steps,” the Kremlin leader said.

In addition to “strengthening the country’s defense,” the priority for the 2027–2029 budget, he said, should be “solving priority social tasks.”

In June, Bloomberg sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that in the 2026 budget law, the government initially allocated 12.9 trillion rubles for “national defense.” However, the actual military budget will exceed the plan by 4–5 trillion rubles.

According to them, in order to cover all the costs of the war, the Ministry of Finance is preparing a sequestration of civilian items and intends to raise 2–3 trillion rubles of additional debt.

Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International Security Issues, calculated, based on data from the Ministry of Finance, that actual budget expenditures for the war with Ukraine reached 5.9 trillion rubles in the first quarter.

“Compared to the same period last year, spending on the army and weapons production increased by 29.9%, compared to January-March 2024 – by 68.7%, compared to 2023 – by 129%, and compared to the first quarter of 2022 – by 4.6 times,” the article says.

According to his calculations, the total costs since 2022 for the war with Ukraine have cost Russian taxpayers 53.079 trillion rubles, or $746.6 billion. 

It is noted that this amount covers 28 years of current budget expenditures on healthcare, 30 years of education expenditures, and 100 annual budgets of large regions such as Krasnoyarsk Krai or Sverdlovsk Oblast.

Leading expert of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Academy of Military and Defense Sciences Emil Ablayev noted that the priority of defense and security in the budget forces the authorities to “be more selective” in financing other areas. At the same time, he added that resources for filling the budget are being reduced due to the constant increase in the tax burden.

Ablaev said that last year, despite the increase in income tax and disposal fees, budget revenues were 3 trillion rubles lower than planned, and this year the problems have “intensified.”

In particular, the Ministry of Finance increased VAT to 22%, but the deficit already reached almost 6 trillion rubles in the first half of the year. The expert shared a forecast that by the end of the year the “hole” in the treasury could increase to 7 trillion.

In addition, the publication reported that the Russian president signed a decree to increase the number of personnel in the Russian Armed Forces by 25,000. This is stated in an official document published on the legal information online portal.

The publication emphasized that this is the second increase in the past two months. It explains that the previous decree of June 12 set the number of military personnel at 1 million 510 thousand, while the new one, dated July 27, brings this figure to 1 million 535 thousand.

“The total staff strength of the Russian armed forces, according to the new decree, is set at 2,426,130 people, while the previous one was 2,399,130,” the article says.

The publication noted that the document explained that the changes were related to the creation of military construction units within the army. 

The document comes into force on August 1, 2026. The government is instructed to provide for the allocation of the necessary budget appropriations from the federal budget to the Ministry of Defense.

According to the publication, this is the sixth increase in the Russian army’s staff since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Putin previously signed similar decrees:

• in March 2026 (up to 2,391,770 people, including 1.51 million military personnel);
• in September 2024 (up to 2,389,130, of which 1.5 million are military personnel);
•  in December 2023 (up to 2,209,130, of which 1,320,000 are military personnel);
• in August 2022 (up to 2,039,758, of which 1,150,628 are military personnel).

North Korea will provide more soldiers to Russia

UNIAN previously reported that, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, North Korea plans to send tens of thousands more troops to Russia to support the war against Ukraine. The media shared that, probably, we are talking about about 30 thousand troops . Senior researcher at the Korean Institute for National Unification Oh Kyung-seop did not rule out such a development. He explained that “this will be a mutually beneficial agreement for both countries.” The expert added that North Korea thus gives Russia “an economically profitable way to replenish its army,” while “Pyongyang receives money and military technology.”

We also wrote that the Russian dictator’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that he “does not consider it necessary” to comment on Zelensky’s statement regarding the replenishment of the Russian army with soldiers from the DPRK. Peskov added that “it is not for Zelensky to talk about our plans.” It is noteworthy that North Korea became the first state to openly send its military to war against Ukraine. According to South Korean intelligence, a total of about 15 thousand DPRK servicemen fought on the side of the Russian Federation. As of the spring of 2025, the losses of the North Korean contingent were estimated at approximately 4,700 people, of whom 600 were killed.

(c)UNIAN 2026