“Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov for the first time disclosed how much of the budget was directly allocated to combat operations”, - writes the Telegram channel “Astra.”
According to the minister, in 2025 war expenditures amounted to 5.1% of GDP, which roughly corresponds to 11.1 trillion rubles ($137.6 billion), based on the Ministry of Economic Development’s GDP forecast of 217.3 trillion rubles.
Total spending by the Ministry of Defense reached 7.3% of GDP, while the share of funds for non-military needs decreased from 2.7% in 2024 to 2.2% in 2025. Previously, the ministry had published only overall expenditures under the “National Defense” category, without separating costs directly related to the “SMO”.