Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Russia has spent more than $160 billion on the war against Ukraine, Forbes reported based on data from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
According to Forbes, Russia spends about $300 million a day on the war against Ukraine.
Russia’s direct military spending and the cost of lost military equipment over the 18 months of the Russo-Ukrainian war (from 24 February 2022 to 24 August 2023) amount to about $167,3 billion, Forbes reported. This estimate does not include Russia’s permanent defense spending unrelated to military operations or economic losses.
The most significant items of expenditure include:
- support for military operations ($51.3 billion)
- military salaries ($35.1 billion)
- compensation to the families of the soldiers killed in action ($25.6 billion) and wounded in action ($21 billion).
According to Forbes, the cost of destroyed Russian military equipment has reached $34 billion.
Source: Forbes.
After the significant weakening of the Russian national currency, the ruble, the average spending on a Russian soldier has dropped. In 2022, the total payments per soldier amounted to about $200 per day. According to Forbes, in 2023, the payments per soldier amounted to about $120 per day due to the rapid decline in the ruble’s value.
With the ruble’s fall, the cost of compensation to the military in US dollars has also decreased. In 2022, at the exchange rate of 60 rubles per US dollar, the compensation cost to the family of the deceased in Russia was about $110,000. Nowadays, it is only about $65,000. According to Forbes, the compensation for the wounded has correspondingly decreased from $45,000 to $27,000.
On the other hand, the Russian losses in recent months have been much higher than last year’s, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. Thus, Russia has to spend more on compensation to the families of soldiers killed and wounded in action during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia spends the most on ammunition and military supplies for the army. The total cost of these expenses is $51.34 billion. At the same time, Russia has spent more than $9 billion on Russian artillery alone since 24 February 2022, when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
The total cost of missiles fired at the territory of Ukraine has already exceeded $21 billion. Russian most significant losses in the war against Ukraine in terms of equipment are tanks and aircraft.
Based on data provided by Ukraine’s General Staff, Russia lost 315 combat aircraft, with an average cost of $18.8 million, and 316 helicopters, with an average cost of $10.4 million. But most of the aviation losses occurred in the first six months of the full-scale invasion.
Since the beginning of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in June, Russian most significant losses have been artillery systems and air defense systems. In the three months of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military destroyed nearly 2,000 Russian artillery systems, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. This is the same number as for the entire 2022. In total, Russia has already lost $5 billion worth of artillery and multiple rocket launchers.
Related:
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