Russia spends $167.3 billion on full-scale war against Ukraine - Forbes

This was reported by Forbes.

Russia spends about $300 million on the war with Ukraine daily. In January-June 2023, more was spent than it planned to expend for the entire year 2023. Despite this, Russia is doubling its military budget, and the cost of a Russian soldier is getting lower.

According to Forbes' calculations based on data from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russia's direct military spending and the cost of lost equipment over the 18 months of the war amounted to about $167.3 billion, excluding fixed defense spending.

The largest items of expenditure are: support for military operations ($51.3 billion), military salaries ($35.1 billion), compensation to the families of the dead ($25.6 billion) and wounded ($21 billion), and the cost of destroyed equipment ($34 billion).

Salaries for soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces

After the rapid fall of the ruble, the "cost" of a Russian soldier for the Russian budget has decreased significantly. As of 2022, the total payments per soldier amounted to about $200 per day, and now it is $120 per day. 

It is noted that in the first six months of 2023 alone, Russia spent 5.59 trillion rubles on defense, which is 600 billion rubles more than was budgeted for the entire year. This forced the Russian government to double the planned federal budget spending on defense for 2023, increasing it to 9.7 trillion rubles. 

The total budget of the Russian Federation for 2023 is planned at 29 trillion rubles. This means that 33% of the federal budget will be spent on army supplies. 

Also, with the fall of the ruble, the cost of compensation to the military in US dollars decreases. If at the exchange rate of 60 rubles/dollar, the cost of compensation to the family of a deceased soldier in Russia was about $110,000, now it is only about $65,000. The amount of compensation for the wounded has correspondingly decreased from $45,000 to $27,000.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the level of Russian losses in recent months has remained much higher than last year, and Russia is therefore forced to spend more on compensation.

Missiles, shells, and ammunition

The main item of Russian expenditure on the war in Ukraine is ammunition and military supplies for the army. The total cost of these expenses is $51.34 billion.

It is reported that last year Russian artillery used up to 50,000 shells per day, but now the rate of use has significantly decreased to about 10,000 shells per day. 

The average price of a Soviet-caliber shell is about $1,000. Thus, Russia spent more than $9 billion on Russian artillery alone during the year and a half of the war. 

Obviously, Russia was not prepared for such a long war and its stockpile of shells and production capabilities do not allow it to meet its own needs in the long term, forcing it to sign a contract for the supply of ammunition with North Korea.

Russia has also increased the intensity of its missile attacks on Ukraine. While in March-April, Russia fired 95 long-range missiles at Ukraine, in May it launched 243 missiles. In August - 126.  

The total cost of missiles fired at Ukraine has already reached more than $21.1 billion.

Destroyed equipment

The largest enemy losses in the war against Ukraine in terms of equipment are tanks and aircraft. 

Russia lost 315 combat aircraft with an average cost of $18.8 million and 316 helicopters with an average cost of $10.4 million. 

During the three months of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military destroyed nearly 2,000 artillery systems. This is the same number as for the entire last year. In total, Russia has already lost $5 billion worth of artillery and MLRS.

Total losses of Russian equipment in monetary terms amount to more than $34 billion for the period from February 24, 2022 to August 24, 2023.