Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a record defense budget of $145 billion. Russia has increased its military expenditure for the year 2025 to a record level. This move of Russia is considered very important during the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia wants to win the ongoing war with Ukraine.

Russia's record defense budget

According to a government website on Sunday, 32.5 percent of Russia's national budget is allocated to national defense, amounting to 13.5 trillion rubles (over 145 billion), up from 28.3 percent this year.

Lawmakers from both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council, had already approved it. The Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022. It is Europe's largest conflict since World War II and has nearly exhausted the resources of both sides.

The Russian government has acknowledged that the special military operation being conducted by Moscow in Ukraine and the needs of supporting the army will remain budget priorities along with social needs and technological development. The government has presented the draft budget as balanced, with the deficit falling to 0.5% against this year's projected deficit of 1.7% and the state debt remaining below the 20% mark for the next three years.

Ukraine is getting help from Western allies

At the same time, Kiev is getting billions of dollars in aid from Western allies, but Russia's forces are larger and are equipped with very advanced weapons. It has also been seen that ever since Donald Trump has talked about ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Russian army has been constantly pushing back Ukrainian troops in the eastern regions.

Meanwhile, European Council President Antonio Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday to show solidarity with Ukraine.