The military spending of the russian federal budget in January-September 2025 reached a historic high. Compared to 2021, the russian military budget increased by 295%.
This was reported by the press service of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
Read more: Ukrainian Intel on russian Arms Production, in Numbers: Missiles, Tanks, Artillery, and Aircraft
According to Ukraine’s intelligence, waging war against Ukraine costs russia 1.32 trillion rubles per month (about $16.6 billion), or 43.4 billion rubles per day (about $546 million), which is equivalent to 1.9 billion rubles per hour (about $23.9 million). The Kremlin is spending 44% of all taxes collected by the federal budget and 39 % of its total expenditures to finance the war
At the same time, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine clarified that the total cost of the war against Ukraine for russian taxpayers has reached 42.343 trillion rubles (approximately $542 billion).
This amount is comparable to 24 annual budgets of the entire russian higher education system, 22 years of federal spending on healthcare, or almost 80 annual budgets of large regions, such as the Sverdlovsk region or the Krasnodar region.
Despite the expansion of defense production, the russian military-industrial complex remains structurally similar to the soviet one – it absorbs resources but does not generate economic returns.
Current dynamics show that the rf’s military-industrial complex is turning into a classic “black hole” for the budget, displacing civilian investment, limiting technological development, and cementing a model in which military spending generates not growth but chronic fiscal risks.
"This imbalance indicates that russia’s economy is not moving according to the logic of industrial development or modernization, but according to the logic of the survival of the military budget, which is increasingly aggressively consuming the resources necessary for long-term economic growth.," the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine noted.
As Defense Express reported, russia's total losses exceed 1.14 million - russian forces sustained an estimated 382,000 killed and wounded in 2025 alone. We also wrote on russian arms production, in numbers: missiles, tanks, artillery, and aircraft.
Read more: russian Transport Aircraft Production Is in Question as the First Il-76MD-90A of the Year Has Been Delivered Only Now
