Russia decided to increase planned war spending for 2027 in response to Ukrainian strikes on refineries and warehouses, the newsletter Vlast reports

Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and warehouses influenced Russia’s decision to increase planned military spending for 2027 in its new draft budget, the Vlast newsletter reported, citing an official involved in drafting the budget.

“All of this [Ukraine’s attacks on oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses] happened in the spring and summer, right when the budget was being prepared,” the official told Vlast. “This budget is overwhelmingly geared toward the military.”

The draft budget calls for Russia to spend 17.1 trillion rubles on defense in 2027, or 6.9% of projected GDP. Actual spending on the war will be even higher, Vlast reported.

To fund that spending, the authorities plan to raise taxes and increase government debt while cutting social spending, health care and education spending, and investment, according to the newsletter.

In its analysis of Russia’s draft budget, Bloomberg said Russia is preparing for the war in Ukraine to last for years. Bloomberg said the budget also signals that Moscow intends to increase pressure on Kyiv’s European allies to end their support for Ukraine.

Russia’s 2026 budget allocated 12.93 trillion rubles to defense. Actual war spending figures for this year will not be available until May 2027. Meduza military expert Dmitry Kuznets said Russia’s spending figures for the first six months of 2026 show that military spending rose 30% from the same period last year to 10.7 trillion rubles, or 4.7% of projected GDP for 2026. If spending continues at that pace in the second half of the year, it will exceed 9% of GDP by December. In Kuznets’s view, the proposed 17.1 trillion-ruble allocation for 2027 is an attempt to budget for war spending below the 2026 level.