KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The Russian government aims to win the war in Ukraine and wants 32.5% of next year’s spending to go to defense, a record amount and up from 28.3% this year. %, but it is increasing further.
The government’s draft budget released on Monday proposes spending just under 13.5 trillion rubles (more than $145 billion) on defense. This was about 3 trillion rubles ($32 billion) more than the amount set aside for defense this year, a previous record.
The war in Ukraine is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, with Ukraine receiving billions of dollars in aid from Western allies and draining resources on both sides.
Russia’s military is larger and better equipped than Ukraine’s, and in recent months Russian forces have been gradually pushing back Ukrainian forces in the eastern region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the United States last week to seek continued financial and military support as the war reaches its third anniversary next February.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is also trying to figure out how to sustain the war effort, as military spending puts a huge strain on Russia’s economy.
Earlier this month, Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate to 19% to combat high inflation. It remained firm on the outlook for further interest rate hikes to bring inflation back from the current 9.1% to the central bank’s target of 4% in 2025.
According to the proposed budget, defense spending should decline in 2026.
The budget bill is still subject to change as it is read three times in Russia’s lower house, the State Duma, and then goes to the upper house, the Federation Council, until it is signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is sex.
Meanwhile, President Putin on Monday signed a muster order calling for 133,000 conscripts for the autumn conscription, a normal number for seasonal conscription campaigns.
In September, he ordered Russia’s military to increase its military strength by 180,000 soldiers, bringing the total to 1.5 million. The total number of military personnel will be approximately 2.4 million.
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday that Russia fired missiles and drones into 11 regions of Ukraine overnight, marking the 33rd consecutive night of air strikes behind the front line and setting a new monthly record for intensive drone attacks. Announced.
It was the first time the Russians launched more than 1,000 Shahed drones in a single month. It was also the first time that Iranian-made drones were used in daily air strikes every month.
Multiple explosions and machine gun fire could be heard in Kiev overnight as the Ukrainian capital’s air defense forces repelled a drone attack for five hours.
No casualties were reported in Kiev or other regions, but a fire hit “critical infrastructure facilities” in the southern Mykolaiv region, Governor Vitaly Kim said, without elaborating.
Since launching a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, Russia has increasingly deployed Shahed drones, rather than more expensive missiles, to bomb Ukrainian cities.
In September alone, it launched more than 1,300 Shahed drones into Ukraine. This was the largest number of drone attacks in a single month since the start of the war.
Ukraine has also developed a new generation of drones for long-range strikes on the battlefield and deep inside Russia. More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday, Russian officials said.
Also on Monday, Putin released a video commemorating the second anniversary of the annexation of four Ukrainian territories, again accusing the West of turning Ukraine into a “military base aimed at Russia.”
Putin was speaking to mark the 2022 annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions following a referendum that was condemned as a sham by the West. Russia also illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.
Putin said that starting in 2022, businesses in the occupied territories will be “actively restored” and hospitals and schools will be rebuilt.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been evacuated from four regions due to the Russian invasion, but President Putin said Russia’s military operations in the country were aimed at protecting the “well-being” of the population and “the future of our children and grandchildren.” Ta.
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Litvinova contributed from Tallinn, Estonia.
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Follow AP coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
