Each kilometer occupied by Russian forces in Ukraine over three years has cost Russian taxpayers an amount comparable to the annual budget of the Healthcare national project, calculated The Moscow Times.
According to the Ministry of Finance, from 2022 to 2024, the budget spent a total of 22.2 trillion rubles ($248.5 billion at the current exchange rate) on the war, with expenses rising each year: 4.7 trillion in 2022, 6.8 trillion in 2023, and 10.7 trillion in 2024.
Currently, Russia controls about 70,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, according to the Russia Matters analytical platform at Harvard's Kennedy School.
Thus, each occupied kilometer has cost the budget 316 billion rubles. For comparison, the annual budget for the Healthcare national project in 2023 was 321 billion rubles, 289 billion rubles in 2024, and is projected at 369 billion rubles for 2025 (renamed Sustained and Active Life).
Spending per kilometer occupied exceeds the annual budgets of 69 out of 83 Russian regions (excluding occupied ones), according to The Moscow Times. Only Moscow, St. Petersburg, the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, and a few others have budgets larger than 316 billion rubles.
In 2025, military spending will rise by nearly 20%, reaching 13.5 trillion rubles. As a result, weekly war expenditures of 260 billion rubles will surpass the annual budgets of 80% of Russian regions. Four regions—Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kalmykia, Ingushetia, and Nenets Autonomous Okrug—have annual budgets lower than Russia's daily war spending.
