The powerful Russian army, with which the Kremlin used to scare the world, was almost crushed by the war in Ukraine. Almost $25 billion worth of Russian military equipment alone was destroyed.
According to published data Forbes, the most expensive cost to the Russian budget was the provision of troops, salaries for the military and compensation for the dead and wounded — almost 54 billion.
During the 12 months of war in Ukraine, not only a huge number of Russian soldiers died, entire armies were destroyed. Armies that have been training and pumping weapons for decades.
Russia no longer has the army that launched a full-scale offensive against Ukraine a year ago. It was replaced by newly mobilized former prisoners and old equipment removed from storage. The myth of the invincible "second army of the world" has been destroyed.
How much does war cost?.
According according to Forbes, Russia spent $114,4 billion a year (about $10 billion a month) on the war. This is a third of all revenues of the Russian budget for 2021.
This sum includes only the direct costs of the war and does not take into account the economic and indirect losses suffered by Russia from sanctions and economic isolation.
The most expensive cost to the federal budget was providing the army - about $36 billion per year of the war. The salary of the military is $24,7 billion. And the amount of compensation that the government of the Russian Federation must pay to the dead and wounded even exceeds the amount of salaries - $29,1 billion.
The families of each killed Russian soldier (145850 as of 23.02.23) must be paid compensation of 7,4 million rubles. (About $110). That is, the total amount of compensation for the killed Russians for the first year of the war exceeds 000 trillion rubles.
The wounded will receive 3 million rubles from the Russian Federation. compensation But the number of seriously wounded is usually twice as large as the number of killed, that is, the costs for this item are not much lower.
Despite rumors about Russia's readiness to mobilize another half a million Russians, the question arises whether the Russian budget is able to withstand such a load.
Loss of soldiers
The last few weeks have been disastrous for Russia due to the loss of manpower. During the period from January 24 to February 24 this year, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 23 Russians were eliminated in Ukraine. This is even more than in the first month of the war and four times more than Russia's average losses last summer.
The increase in the number of troops at the expense of poorly prepared mobilized and former prisoners and ambitious offensive plans along almost the entire front line led to a geometric increase in enemy losses.
Tanks
Russia has long invested in its tank armies in an effort to create a force that will be feared by all of Europe. In a year, almost all of these armies will remain in Ukraine forever.
Last fall, it became known that Russia is at war lost the First Tank Army of the Russian Federation - the largest tank military formation in Europe.
In total, the Armed Forces destroyed 12 tanks during the 3350 months of the war. This is more than Russia had at the beginning of the invasion (3330 tanks according to The Military Balance).
The losses are so great that the Russians had to open warehouses for long-term storage.
According to the Ukrainian Military Center, which spent OSINT-intelligence of Russian tank storage bases, in August there were still about 2000 combat-ready tanks of old models. However, the information about "tens of thousands of Soviet tanks in warehouses" turned out to be a myth.
In the search for suitable equipment of the Russian Federation, it was even necessary to open the old T-62. According to Oryx, visually confirmed at least 62 destroyed T-62 tanks.
If you analyze the open sources, Russia was able to decan and produce during the year of the war 1000 – 1800 Feet tanks This is still a lot, but 2-3 times less than Moscow had last year. In addition, all the best units have already been deployed to the front.
Forbes estimated the value of destroyed and captured Russian equipment at almost $25 billion.
Losses of other equipment
Losses of Russian armored vehicles and artillery are not so catastrophic. In general, the Russian Federation lost 40-70% of its land military equipment. But the artillery, which caused the greatest losses to the Ukrainian military in the first six months of the war, became especially valuable trophies for the Armed Forces.
In 12 months, the Armed Forces were able to destroy 471 anti-aircraft guns out of 1100 units and 2352 artillery pieces out of 3080. Russians mobilized several hundreds of artillery systems from reserves, but the systematic destruction of the Armed Forces made it possible to equalize the situation on the battlefield.
Aviation losses are the most tangible for the Russians. Despite the fact that in the war in Ukraine aviation does not play such an important role as in other modern wars, the restoration of the aircraft fleet is the most difficult and expensive process.
The total value of the destroyed Russian planes is about $6,5 billion. The destroyed helicopters cost Russia another $3 billion.
Together, aviation losses exceed even the cost of lost armored vehicles.
Rockets
According danimi According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, at the beginning of the invasion, Russia had 2727 long-range cruise and ballistic missiles and more than 8500 short-range missiles (up to 200 km).
In total, the enemy used more than 4000 missiles in Ukraine.
However, in recent months, the pace of shelling has decreased significantly - from 250-300 to 110-180 missiles per month. Therefore, this resource is also gradually being depleted.
During the first nine months of the war, Russia made an average of about 80 missiles per month, the Ministry of Defense reported. This number is gradually decreasing due to the technological degradation of Russian production. The head of the GUR, Kyrylo Budanov, is sure that Russia's maximum now is 40 missiles per month.
This is not enough to maintain the pace of fire. However, the Russians still have a reserve of 1100-1300 long-range missiles.
Russia inflicted more destruction and casualties on Kharkiv by rocket fire, based on data of the Bellingcat project. Cities within 100-200 km will probably continue to suffer from rocket fire until the end of the war. After all, the Russians still have a lot of short-range missiles.
