‘My child’s life is on the line’ Russia’s wartime budget slashed funding for essential medicines. Now they’re running out.
Across Russia, patients are struggling to access essential medications. Drug shortages have become a persistent issue in Russian regions since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. While officials blame sanctions and logistical challenges, the budget for medical procurement has shrunk — leading some analysts to suggest that funds have been redirected to Russia’s war effort. The independent Okno project spoke with patients and parents of sick children to understand the situation on the ground. Meduza shares a summary of their findings.
Recently, Russian parents of children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) say they haven’t been receiving the intravenous feeding formula their children need to survive. Desperate for solutions, families have turned to group chats and social media groups, relying on one another to get by. For the past month, they’ve survived by swapping medications — hoping they’ll eventually be able to “pay each other back,” as one parent put it.
Meanwhile, in Saratov, Volsk, and Balakovo, residents are reporting severe shortages of insulin, glucose test strips, and insulin pump supplies — all essential for managing diabetes.
“I was given barely any test strips last time,” said Dmitry, a Saratov resident. “Insulin isn’t always available, and recently, they outright refused to give it to me. Luckily, I’d stocked up — experience has taught me to expect delays. But every time I go to pick up my prescription, I’m on edge. Will they give it to me or not?”
“The pharmacies had insulin,” he continued. “They had test strips. But only for sale — at full price. These are lifesaving medications! By law, they’re supposed to be free. But no!”
Svetlana, who lives in Volsk, said insulin shortages in her city began three months ago. “I went all the way to the Health Ministry to demand my insulin, but now I live in fear of what will happen next,” she said. “Not everyone has the strength to fight like that. My neighbor never got hers. She recently told me they even gave her expired test strips — completely unreliable for tracking blood sugar. She had to throw them away.”
Everyone Okno spoke to brought up the death of 28-year-old Olga Bogaeva, a Saratov region resident who died due to a lack of insulin. The case prompted the Investigative Committee to open a criminal inquiry, but the results of the investigation were never made public. Officials “didn’t learn a thing” from that tragedy, one person said.
‘We’ve been left with nothing’
The shortages have led to patients being switched to Russian-made insulin substitutes — which, they say, come with serious side effects.
“Even adults are experiencing complications,” Svetlana said. “And just when you start to accept it, the substitutes run short too. What can you do? When we can’t get them, we have to buy insulin ourselves — sometimes from another region, sometimes at a steep markup.”
A month’s supply of insulin in local pharmacies costs anywhere from 5,000 rubles ($58) for Russian generics to 30,000 rubles ($348) for imported brands — on par with the region’s average monthly salary. Patients say the government appears to be rationing medications, pointing to recent comments by regional Health Minister Vladimir Dudakov, who admitted during a regional Duma meeting that state reserves would only last until March. He also warned that there was a three-billion-ruble ($34.8 million) shortfall in the regional budget for medicine and medical supplies through the end of the year.
Officials in other regions have given similar explanations. In December, Zabaykalsky Krai Governor Alexander Osipov responded to repeated complaints about insulin shortages by saying that while the regional budget had initially covered demand, the number of patients needing insulin increased throughout the year — catching the health ministry “off guard.”
“According to our Health Ministry, only 19,000 people required insulin at the start of the year,” Osipov said. “By year’s end, another 400 patients had been added.”
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In Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Ulyanovsk region, parents report that even children with diabetes are struggling to receive critical supplies. “Every year, it’s the same story,” said Iya Dianova from Krasnoyarsk. “Either the orders are delayed, or they get the wrong medication, or they fail to sign a contract, or the supplier backs out. That’s how they justify these constant shortages of lifesaving medication.”
Dianova’s seven-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age two. For five years, Dianova has fought for access to proper care. But this year, she said, the situation has become worse than ever. “In 2025, we’ve been left with nothing. Nothing at all,” she said. “No test strips to monitor glucose, no supplies for insulin pumps. [...] Without the pump, my daughter will have to go back to injections — seven shots per day. She can’t do them on her own. That means no school. We’d have to pull her out. What’s happening here is outrageous.”
Parents note that doctors continue to write prescriptions in good faith, but pharmacies impose long wait times. “Because [the medicines] simply don’t exist!” one mother told Okno. “Switching to an alternative is always a risk, especially for a child. But the real problem is that even Russian-made substitutes are in short supply too.”
In response, diabetic patients also have formed online exchange networks where they barter for medicine and supplies. “It sounds insane, doesn’t it?” said Dianova. “There are now special group chats in Russia where diabetics trade medications. We spend hours in online marketplaces, swapping whatever we have — test strips for insulin, insulin for cannulas. And when there’s nothing left to trade, we give an IOU. What else can we do? We take it, hoping we’ll be able to pay it back later. My child’s life is on the line.”
“The scale of this crisis is staggering,” said Olga, another mother from Krasnoyarsk Krai. “In one local diabetes chat alone, there are 1,200 patients. And every single one of them is missing something they need.”
Less medicine, more military
Medication shortages have become widespread across Russia, according to Maria Balashova, who works for a nonprofit organization that supports children and adults with short bowel syndrome. “Every region in Russia is now facing shortages of expensive, life-saving medications for rare and severe diseases,” she said, calling it a growing crisis.
Balashova said health officials are refusing to distribute medications that should be covered by the state budget. According to her, some parents were told by regional health ministries that the shortages are due to sanctions, as foreign drug distributors are supposedly refusing to send shipments to Russia. “Desperate parents started writing directly to [these foreign] drug distributors,” Balashova said. “And guess what? They responded that they’d be happy to supply the medications — but the Health Ministry stopped buying them.”
Parents of children with SBS say they have dealt with sporadic shortages before, sometimes paying out of pocket for costly medications to get through shortfalls. But in the past year, Russia’s Health Ministry has stopped providing some essential drugs entirely.
Without parenteral nutrition, children with SBS cannot survive. According to Balashova, some of the missing medications have no Russian-made alternatives at all. “What does it mean to deny these children parenteral nutrition?” asked Elina Belkova, the mother of a two-year-old with severe intestinal and metabolic disorders. “It means death.”
In 2023, Russia slashed its federal budget for imported medications by 65 billion rubles ($753.6 million). Analysts from Headway Company and DSM Group suggest that the money was redirected to fund military needs. That same year, the government approved a record-high defense budget and has increased military spending every year since.
Since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, medication shortages have been a persistent issue across Russia. In August 2024, pharmacies in several remote villages in Kamchatka ran out of essential drugs, with authorities promising new deliveries only by September 1.
The month before, HIV-positive patients across multiple regions began reporting widespread shortages of antiretroviral drugs and the replacement of imported medications with Russian-made alternatives that cause severe side effects. Experts say the government has cut funding for antiretroviral therapy by a third, even as the number of patients continues to rise.
In spring 2024, pharmacies in 58 Russian regions ran out of Kalimate, the only potassium binder registered in the country and a critical drug for dialysis patients.
Since summer 2023, parents of children with cystic fibrosis have been reporting shortages of essential medications, too. Starting in 2025, patients are being forcibly switched to a Russian-made targeted therapy — one that has never undergone clinical trials on humans.