Russia to Ramp Up Defense Spending as Putin's Campaign Falters

Russia will be ramping up its defense spending in 2023, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Wednesday, as President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine continues to falter.

Shoigu said the country's state defense orders would increase in 2023 to nearly 1.5 times this year's figure, Russia's state-run news agency Interfax reported.

The amount of funding for Russia's state defense order "taking into account the additional allocated budget funds" in 2023 will increase by almost one and a half times, the defense minister said.

"This will make it possible to provide formations and military units with constant readiness for weapons and equipment at the level of 97 percent," he said at a meeting of the collegium of Russia's Ministry of Defense in Moscow.

He told military chiefs that the spending hike would help ensure most state defense orders are fulfilled.

"It is important to maintain the maximum possible volume of production, to organize advanced deliveries to the troops," he said. "It is necessary to continue the modernization and creation of promising systems with their subsequent use in the course of a special military operation."

Shoigu said that due to the war in Ukraine and Putin's September 21 partial mobilization order, "the requirements for state orders at all levels of control and execution have increased."

The defense minister also suggested that the Russian military should use new advanced weapons systems in Ukraine.

"It is necessary to continue the modernization and creation of promising systems with their subsequent use during the special military operation," he said.

And in separate televised comments, Shoigu said Wednesday that Russia will pay special attention to building infrastructure for its nuclear forces next year.

Russia's defense spending totaled 4.7 trillion rubles ($77 billion) in 2022, Latvia-based Meduza reported, citing data from of the Russian Ministry of Finance. According to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, that figure is 1.2 trillion rubles ($19.7 billion) more than was approved for this year's spending, and in 2023, Russia plans to spend almost 5 trillion rubles ($82.1 billion) on defense.

Shoigu's announcement comes as reports emerge that Russia is running low on missiles, equipment, and drones, more than nine months into Putin's war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov suggested on November 22 that Russia's missile stockpile was dwindling. He shared an illustration on Twitter showing Russia's high-precision missile arsenal as of November 18.

The illustration of Russia's ground-launched, sea-launched, and air-launched missiles showed that as of November 18, the country had 8,476 missiles left out of the 11,227 it had when it first invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine separately released a report on November 7 that said Russia only had 120 of its modern missiles left in its arsenal.

The report said Russia has used an estimated 80 percent of its modern missiles and now only has 120 Iskander missiles left.

British defense officials have also highlighted that Russia is facing issues with equipment. The British Ministry of Defense said on November 3 that in the middle of October, Russian forces were losing more than 40 armored vehicles a day, which is roughly the equivalent of a battalion's worth of equipment.

And on November 23, the British defense ministry assessed that Russia is close to exhausting its stockpile of Iranian-manufactured drones. It said Russia has nearly drained its inventory of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) manufactured in Iran, and will likely seek to procure more.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's defense ministry for comment.

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