Russia spent more than $300 million per day on defense last month as its invasion of Ukraine continued to drag on, according to Finance Ministry data, more than doubling its pre-war defense spending.
Defense spending has increased every month since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February as Russia’s Armed Forces failed to secure a quick victory and settled for a strategy of capturing eastern territories.
If Russia’s defense spending in February totaled 369 billion rubles ($5.4 billion), March saw an uptick to 450 billion rubles ($6.6 billion), according to the ministry data first reported by The Moscow Times’ Russian service.
April was by far the most expensive month with 628 billion rubles ($9.2 billion) spent on defense.
That breaks down to about 21 billion rubles, or $308 million, per day.
Russia’s defense spending in April was more than double that of the pre-war period, with 233.7 billion rubles ($3.4 billion) spent in January 2022. In April 2021, defense spending totaled 275 billion rubles.
Between January and the end of April 2022, 1.681 trillion rubles ($24.6 billion) of the Russian budget was allocated toward military expenditures.
That figure is triple the amount spent on education, more than double the amount spent on health and 10 times the amount spent on environmental conservation and management.