Russia wants to allocate 32.5% of its spending to defense next year, a record amount that exceeds the 28.3% reported this year, while still at war with Ukraine.
The government’s draft budget released Monday proposes spending just under 13.5 trillion rubles (more than $145 billion) on national defense. That’s 3 trillion rubles ($32 billion) more than was set aside for defense this year, a record so far.
The war in Ukraine is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has strained resources on both sides. kyiv is receiving billions of dollars in aid from its Western allies.
Russian forces are larger and better equipped than Ukrainian ones.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week seeking financial support and military continued as the war approaches three years in February.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin is also looking for ways to maintain his war effort, as military spending has put enormous pressure on the Russian economy.
Earlier this month, Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by one percentage point to 19% to combat strong inflation, and He forecast further rate increases to lower inflation from the current 9.1% to the bank’s target of 4% in 2025.
According to the draft budget, defense spending should decrease in 2026.
The proposed budget could still change before going through three readings in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, and It then goes to the Federation Council, the upper house, before President Putin signs it into law.
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Meanwhile, Putin signed on Monday an order calling for 133,000 military recruits for the fall, which is a routine figure for seasonal recruiting campaigns.
In September, he ordered the country’s army to increase the number of Russian troops by 180 thousand to a total of 1.5 million. In total, military personnel will be about 2.4 million.
Russia launched missiles and drones against 11 regions of Ukraine, The Ukrainian Air Force said Monday, marking the 33rd consecutive night of airstrikes far from the front lines and breaking a monthly record for drone strikes.
It was the first time the Russians launched more than a thousand Shahed drones in a month. TIt was also the first time that Iranian-made drones were used in every day of the month airstrikes.
Explosions and machine gun fire were heard in kyiv throughout the night as Ukrainian air defenses They fought off a drone attack for five hours.
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