You’ll never guess how much money Russia has spent on the war in Ukraine

It’s been more than a year and a half since Vladimir Putin gave the order for the military invasion of Ukraine, a decision which has since proved quite costly according to Forbes. 

Putin has faced military defeat on the battlefield as well as stunning retreats and even a domestic coup. But the total cost for all of these troubles has hit the hundreds of billions. 

In a recent report from Forbes’ Ukrainian branch, journalists have calculated that Russia has spent about $167.3 billion dollars on the invasion of Ukraine since the war started.  

Even more astonishing is the fact that the equipment destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the invasion began accounts for $34 billion of the Kremlin’s total spending.  

Forbes estimated that Moscow is currently spending roughly $300 million dollars a day on the war in Ukraine. But that isn’t the worst of the Kremlin’s current money problems. 

The total estimates of Russia’s current cost to fight the war in Ukraine does not include how much the country is paying for other defense spending that isn’t related to the war. 

Moreover, the overall estimate of what Russia has spent on the conflict doesn’t take into account the economic cost the country has suffered as a result of Moscow’s invasion. 

The single largest expenditure for the Kremlin has been the cost of provisioning military operations inside Ukraine at a price tag of $51 billion. But there are other major costs, too.

Russia paid $35.1 billion in military salaries since the war began while compensation for the families of the dead cost $25.1 billion and costs of the wounded reached $21 billion. 

Interestingly, the total cost of the missiles Russia had fired at Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion has reached $21 billion.

The biggest losses of equipment were among Russia's tanks, artillery, and aviation with the cost of 315 lost aircraft amounted to $18.8 million while 316 lost helicopters cost $10.4 million. 

Moscow has lost roughly $5 billion dollars worth of artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems since the invasion began. However, there are some caveats we should consider when looking at these numbers. 

The figures calculated by Forbes were based on data from the General Staff of Ukraine between February 24, 2022, and August 24, 2023—and it is important to remember that they should be taken with a grain of salt, even if they do give us some interesting insights into the cost of war for Russia.

Moscow has come under increasing pressure over the last several months as Russia’s currency has plunged to record lows against the dollar while revenues have slumped. 

On September 15th, the Russian central bank was forced to raise interest rates in the country up to 13% after a 350 basis point hike to 12% in August, which was a response meant to stabilize the ruble as it slid to 100 against the dollar at the time according to Reuters. 

However, all of these economic troubles haven’t slowed down Russia's spending on the war and a separate Reuters report stated at the beginning of August that Moscow had decided to double its defense spending target to more than $100 billion dollars.

The number represents about one-third of the country’s public expenditure and Reuters wrote that the ”figures shed light on Russia's spending on the conflict at a time when sector-specific budget expenditure data is no longer published.”