{"id":1174102,"date":"2026-08-28T11:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1174102\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:59:17","slug":"russia-is-running-out-of-cash-due-to-its-war-in-ukraine-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1174102\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia is running out of cash due to its war in Ukraine: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

VIENNA \u2014 Russia\u2019s war spending pushed the state to the brink of running out of cash this spring, according to a Bloomberg report that offers the clearest account yet of how the financial burden of the Ukraine<\/a> invasion is straining Moscow\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported<\/a> that Finance Minister Anton Siluanov warned Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in April that the government would not have enough money to make all scheduled payments on time. The balance on the federal treasury\u2019s single account fell to roughly minus 5.5 trillion rubles, or about $65.3 billion in the red, forcing the government into an austerity regime that has since cut non-military spending by 35% and is expected to trim federal staffing by 15%, Bloomberg wrote.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s federal deficit for January through April reached 5.8-5.9 trillion rubles, or 2.5% of GDP \u2014 nearly double the same period a year earlier, according to Finance Ministry data reported<\/a> by Forbes Russia. Bloomberg separately wrote<\/a> in June that Finance Ministry and central bank officials had warned President Vladimir Putin that war spending was on an unaffordable trajectory. Overruns on military and security budget lines potentially reaching 2 to 4 trillion rubles ($23 to 47 billion) this year, the Financial Times separately reported<\/a>. Putin has refused to cut military outlays, instead directing cuts elsewhere. Debt-servicing costs alone now consume roughly 4 trillion rubles ($47 billion), about 9% of the federal budget, according to the Russian government\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Corroboration of the cash-crunch specifics in Russian government statements and state-aligned media is limited. No state-run Russian outlet or Kremlin spokesperson has publicly addressed the report. Notably, Siluanov himself told<\/a> a Rossiya-1 journalist four days before Bloomberg\u2019s story ran that the budget \u201chas no problems whatsoever\u201d and is \u201cfully backed by resources.\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previously acknowledged the deficit while describing it as manageable \u201ccurrent difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report comes amid deepening woes in Russia brought about by the war it started in Ukraine four years ago, ranging from economic problems to increasingly bold Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian logistics hubs and military facilities. Amidst all this, a secretive visit to Moscow by CIA director John Ratcliffe this week fuelled further speculation, with the New York Times reporting<\/a> that at least part of the message he delivered was to provide an unfiltered view of the bleak situation the country is facing on the battlefield and at home. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Kremlin so far seems to be doubling down on its war footing. Instead of cutting military expenditures, which have risen sharply, painful cuts are being made elsewhere. And the war is set to continue, too, with Russian leaders routinely rebuffing the concept of a negotiated peace on anything less than Russia\u2019s maximalist terms. Parliamentary elections are coming up in September but are unlikely to change much \u2013 the only anti-war opposition party, Yabloko, was prohibited from running by the country\u2019s supreme court two and a half weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The official grounds cited were copyright infringement in Yabloko\u2019s campaign materials.<\/p>\n

Linus H\u00f6ller is Defense News’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master\u2019s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIENNA \u2014 Russia\u2019s war spending pushed the state to the brink of running out of cash this spring,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1174103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[5606,9057,5607,5602,33,2046,332,657],"class_list":["post-1174102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-circulated-defense-news","tag-defense-spending","tag-defense-news","tag-dn-dnr","tag-elections","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117173024491966890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1174103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}