Russia plans to hike its defense spending by about 30 percent next year as it diverts more resources to fund its offensive in Ukraine, draft budget plans published on Monday showed.
Moscow has already ramped up its military spending to levels not seen since the Soviet Union era, as it pumps out missiles and drones to fire on Ukraine and pays lucrative salaries to its hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on the front lines.
The latest planned increase in spending will take Russia’s defense budget to 13.5 trillion rubles ($145 billion) in 2025, a document published on the parliamentary website showed.
That figure does not include some other resources being directed to the military campaign, such as spending that Russia labels as “domestic security” and some outlays classified as top secret.
Combined spending on defense and security will account for around 40 percent of Russia’s total government spending, seen at 41.5 trillion rubles in 2025.