Russia will spend 5.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on the war in Ukraine in 2025, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said yesterday, providing the first official estimate of how much the conflict will cost the state budget this year.
Based on the Economy Ministry’s 2025 GDP estimate of 217 trillion roubles ($2.70trn), war expenditure will amount to 11trn roubles. Belousov said the defence ministry’s total spending in 2025, including non-war-related items, amounted to 7.3pc of GDP.
The Russian state budget allocated 6.2pc of GDP to “national defence” in 2025 and another 1.8pc to “national security”, with the total amount for defence and security set at 17trn roubles.
Belousov said that the ministry had faced severe budget restrictions in 2025 and had to cut costs.
“Conducting combat operations led to an increase in military spending. All this required strict optimisation and prioritisation of the defence budget,” Belousov told an annual gathering of the ministry’s staff, attended by President Vladimir Putin.
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