The German newspaper calculated how much Moscow spends on its senseless bloodshed on Ukrainian territory, it turned out that Putin's plan “B” is many times more expensive than plan “A”.
The Russian war against Ukraine has been going on for more than two months . And for Russia and Vladimir Putin, from the very beginning, everything went wrong. Moreover, war is becoming more expensive. How much is Moscow actually spending on its senseless invasion?
The German publication Focus provides some estimates that may answer this question. Various figures have already been given in the media. However, there are still no accurate verified data on the number of Russian dead and wounded, as well as on the number of lost equipment, the cost of attacks and so on. And the price of war consists of all this. The crazy figure of $ 1 billion that Putin spends daily on aggression against Ukraine has appeared in the press.
Russia.
How many military and weapons?
Various sources say that the number of Russian soldiers varies from 150,000 to 200,000. Expert Tommy Ahonen estimates that about 190,000 Russian servicemen are taking part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This number of personnel requires approximately 19,000 units of various military equipment. These figures may not be accurate. However, according to Focus, they may differ from reality by about a few hundred. Therefore, in further calculations, these figures are used as a basis. Russia's military logic assumes that troops must be able to operate in an unfavorable environment. And therefore for each soldier there should be a place in armored vehicles. Based on this logic, Ahonen believes that 40% of equipment in Russia's hands are armored personnel carriers, 30% – tanks, 20% – artillery systems and 10% other types of military vehicles, to which the expert contributes air defense systems, trucks and more. So it turns out that Russia should have 7,600 units of armored personnel carriers, 5,700 tanks, 3,800 units of various artillery units and about 1,900 units of other military vehicles.
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The most expensive factor in Putin's war is, of course, the artillery that uses the most expensive ammunition. It is no coincidence that more than half of Russian cargo going to Ukraine is artillery ammunition. Focus divides all existing artillery systems in Russia into two rough groups: self-propelled howitzers and self-propelled mortars. The publication believes that one self-propelled artillery howitzer can fire a maximum of 250 shots a day. And if you imagine that there are 1,900 such installations in Russia, that's 475,000 shots a day or 24,000 tons of ammunition. Of course, not all Russian guns fire every day. But Ahonen believes that if that happened, the maximum cost of such artillery fire in one day would be $ 475 million. Another 1,900 self-propelled grenade launchers are also capable of firing no more than 250 shots daily. So they all need 5,000 tons of ammunition. The maximum cost of firing from such installations is $ 95 million per day. The Russian military is also firing on other more portable weapons, such as grenade launchers. Focus estimates that Moscow spends a maximum of $ 30 million a day on this.
So Russia's actual spending on the shooting itself depends heavily on how its soldiers actually shoot in Ukraine. On April 28, Forbes also published estimates claiming that Moscow had spent $ 7.5 billion on missiles in the 62 days of the war. This means that a day of rocket fire costs the aggressor about $ 120 million.
Expensive fuel
Another important item of expenditure is fuel. Most of it is “devoured” by Russian tanks with their 1,100-liter tanks. Thus, Focus believes that Moscow needs to spend $ 6.3 million a day to supply all 5,700 tanks. Russian military aircraft also need a lot of fuel. Every day the Russian Air Force makes about 200 sorties. In mid-March, their number rose to almost 300. Given that one flight requires 4 to 10 tons of fuel, we can assume that Russia spends $ 2.3 million every day. All other Russian combat vehicles use about 5.9 million liters of fuel. So, in the end, Russia spends about $ 15.5 million on fuel alone.
Cheap mercenaries
Russian law requires the Kremlin to pay compensation for the wounds and deaths of soldiers. And it's expensive. Statistics show that an average of 365 Russian soldiers die in the war against Ukraine every day. And if we assume that there are about 1.72 wounded per dead, then Moscow has to pay $ 11.8 million daily to those who were maimed in battle, and about 11.2 million to the families of the dead. So soldiers cost Russia $ 23 million a day.
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But Putin also uses about 20,000 cheap mercenaries from countries like Syria and Libya. Each costs about $ 1,800 a month. At the same time, the death of such fighters does not oblige Moscow to do anything. Russia spent $ 36 million a month on mercenaries, or $ 1.2 million a day.
Lost military equipment
If you count everything that the Armed Forces have already destroyed in this war, the Russian bill becomes even bigger. The Moscow cruiser alone, sunk by Ukrainian missiles, cost $ 760 million. According to various estimates, the Russian army has already lost about $ 10 billion in equipment. But the real figure is likely to be even higher. Focus writes that Moscow will have to spend at least $ 14.7 billion to repair or replace all the lost equipment. It is important to note that in the modern war, lost armored vehicles can not simply be replaced by old models from warehouses. So the daily loss of equipment, according to the publication, costs Russia about $ 230 million.
As for Russian soldiers, they need to be paid not only in case of death or injury. But even in peacetime, the state is obliged to pay them salaries. Therefore, the publication does not take these costs into account in its calculations of the daily cost of the war against Ukraine.
Maximum and real price tag
Thus, the final maximum cost of one day of aggression could cost Russia $ 993.7 million. But this is the maximum price tag. Of course, not every artillery unit fires, and not every tank burns mercilessly every day. Focus estimates that the real Russian cost of one day of war against Ukraine is about $ 534.5 million. However, it is obvious that the allegation about one billion dollars that appeared in the media earlier is also not taken from the ceiling. There may be some days when the fighting is particularly heavy and large-scale. And then Moscow has to spend a lot.
However, half a billion dollars in daily expenses is a very realistic estimate. Although it makes Putin's invasion of Ukraine the most expensive war of all time.
Cheap Plan A
But it is clear that Putin was not going to spend such large sums. According to his plan “A”, the war was to last only three days. Western experts also believed that such a scenario was possible. It can be assumed that in such an intensive campaign all Russian military equipment would be used. Fuel consumption would also be maximum. However, according to Focus, only a third of the maximum amount of ammunition would be needed. Akhonen believes that Putin was not prepared to pay compensation for massive military losses. Mercenaries were also not taken into account in the original plan. Thus, according to Focus estimates, Moscow expected that its “little victorious war” would cost a billion dollars. This seems to have been Putin's budget for the invasion of Ukraine.
Roadmap B
As everyone knows, Russia's attempt to quickly defeat the Armed Forces failed. So Plan B came up, which called for the occupation of Kyiv to end the war quickly. Putin wanted to first surround the Ukrainian capital, mine its suburbs, and then shoot civilians to force the city to surrender under siege. The same plans were for other major cities in Ukraine. Russia planned to spend up to 6 months on all this. This plan also did not take into account the cost of compensation for the death or injury of Russian soldiers. Also, no one in Moscow was going to spend money on mercenaries. However, such a plan would reduce the cost of ammunition and missiles. Focus estimates that such a six-month war would cost Russia $ 11.23 billion.
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However, Moscow seems to have hoped to implement its plan “B” after a successful three-day palanquin “A”. Therefore, their value should be combined. So Russia would spend $ 12.23 billion in six months.
But the war turned out to be more expensive
However, Russia's plans failed. It was not possible to conquer Ukraine cheaply and quickly. So the war is becoming more and more expensive for Putin. Instead of the expected six-month high of $ 12.23 billion, Moscow has already spent $ 34 billion on aggression against the neighboring country. And this in just two months. And every other day, another billion dollars is added to this amount.
At this rate, it is likely that money will be a problem for Putin in the near future. Especially since sanctions are also putting pressure on the Russian economy. How will Russia react to this problem? It is difficult to predict. A hint may appear on May 9. However, if Putin does announce a major mobilization on this day, it will be extremely costly for Russia. And it is not clear where to get this money.
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