Putin spent over €110bn on Ukraine war so far in 2026, up one-third on last year (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,659)

Every day, the Ukraine Battlefield update newsletter offers a clear look at how the war is unfolding on the ground. Subscribe for free here to get the full text delivered to your inbox. The Russian state has so far spent 30 percent more money on the military this year than it did last year. Nevertheless, Ukrainians believe Russia will have the resources for the war for the next two years as well. A Russian Geran-4 jet-powered drone struck a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet at an airfield. Russian bloggers are beginning to write about the withdrawal of Russian soldiers near Lyman. Ukrainians set a record by striking the Russian rear with a drone some 3,000 kms from their borders. Map of the day: How a jet-powered drone flew over Moldova and Romania. Videos of the day: Anti-drone protection at Ukrainian petrol stations, Ukrainian attacks on Russian mobile teams, and anti-drone nets near Kyiv. When Russian president Vladimir Putin recently spoke at an economic conference in Vladivostok, he sought to create the impression that the Russian economy was doing well. “Nothing critical is happening,” the Russian president said. This was despite Ukrainian attacks on refineries limiting fuel availability at Russian petrol stations, and attacks on warehouses belonging to companies such as Wildberries complicating online shopping in the country. Russia’s public-finance budget is also in trouble. “The fiscal situation is deteriorating rapidly as war costs continue to rise sharply,” wrote German economist Janis Kluge, who specialises in Russia’s wartime economy. Kluge analysed new data from the Russian finance ministry. According to the data, Russian spending on the war has risen significantly this year. In the first half of 2026, Russia spent a total of 10.7 trillion roubles on the military — and thus on the war in Ukraine — equivalent to around €110bn. This represents a 30-percent increase in military spending compared with 2025. Kluge included both declared and classified defence expenditure in this total. As he wrote, 85 percent of the state’s classified spending goes to the military. The table above shows how Russian military spending in the first half of the year has risen since 2018. In the first year of the war, in 2022, Russia spent just under three trillion roubles in the first six months. And although inflation has eroded the value of money since then, defence spending has risen almost fourfold. Kluge’s second table shows first-half military spending as a percentage of the country’s annual GDP. In the first half of 2026, Russia therefore spent 10.5 percent of GDP generated during that period on the military. Overall, 57 percent of state-budget revenue went to the military. “More than half of every rouble the government collected in taxes and other revenues went to the war,” Kluge wrote. Overall, Russia’s plans had envisaged military spending being lower this year than in 2025. Another chart shows Russian budget plans approved in the autumn for various years. These are plans — for example, the actual military budget last year amounted to around eight percent of GDP. “If military expenditure continues to grow at this pace, it will exceed nine percent of GDP by December, setting a new record in Russia’s post-Soviet history,” Kluge added. Russian budget revenues, meanwhile, are not reaching the levels planned in the autumn of last year. This is due to lower revenues from oil and natural-gas sales, although high prices following the US-Israeli attack on Iran have helped. “As revenues are lower, higher military spending will lead to an increase in the budget deficit. According to budget data, the deficit had reached 2.8 percent of GDP by the end of July — almost twice the original annual target,” Kluge added. Russia initially financed the war mainly from its National Wealth Fund. However, it has already spent a large part of these reserves and must therefore borrow. In Russia’s case, this is more complicated than for an ordinary European country. “This means that the Russian finance ministry must rely on new debt as its main source of financing. Domestic borrowing has, however, become exceptionally costly for Moscow,” the German economist added. Nevertheless, this does not mean that Russia has reached its limit and has no more money to draw on for the war. But the strained budget is another of the problems facing the Russian economy. “The main problems confronting the Russian economy are labour shortages, the growing federal-budget deficit and the deteriorating situation in the banking system,” HUR chief Oleh Ivashchenko told Ukrinform. Nevertheless, Ukrainians do not expect the Russian economy to collapse soon either. They believe that Russia will probably have the resources to finance the war for the next two years as well. “We do not rule out that these resources will last until 2027 and 2028,” Ivashchenko said. If the phrase that Russia has resources for the next two years sounds familiar, there is a reason for that — similar predictions have been made in the past. Russia has so far managed to find ways to defy foreign expectations, although this is unlikely to be possible indefinitely. Russia said that its Geran-4 jet-powered drone had struck a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet at Vasylkiv air base in Kyiv region. It also released a video purporting to prove this. The Russians claim to have destroyed a MiG-29 fighter jet at the Vasylkiv airfield near Kyiv today. Russian channels posted video footage, but Ukraine has not confirmed it. pic.twitter.com/k5BXcjV8J7— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) September 9, 2026 The footage shows a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet flying past the drone. It was apparently filmed by another, probably reconnaissance, drone. It then showed the fighter jet at the airfield and the Geran-4 drone striking it. It has not been conclusively established that this was the same fighter jet as the one seen in the air. In any case, the fighter jet at the airfield was destroyed. The Russian side releases footage from the strike with a Geran-4 jet-powered long-range OWA-UAV on a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet stationed on the territory of Vasylkiv Air Base in Ukraine's Kyiv Oblast.The targeted plane was destroyed on the ground as a result of the attack.… pic.twitter.com/fHYnETwOSK— Status-6 (War & Military News) (@Archer83Able) September 9, 2026 A former Ukrainian drone operator, now a drone expert using the pseudonym Kriegsforscher, described it as “very worrying”. This was not the first such documented case. As analyst John Hardie wrote, it first happened in late June, when a Geran-4 struck a MiG-29 at Voznesensk airfield in Mykolaiv region. According to Oryx, Ukraine has lost 38 MiG-29 fighter jets in total — the latest one has not yet been included. Although the Geran-4 is described as a jet-powered drone, experts such as Fabian Hoffmann consider it more akin to a cheap, lighter cruise missile, given its similar characteristics. It is already faster than conventional drones, although unlike conventional cruise missiles it carries a smaller warhead. This is nevertheless sufficient to destroy a parked Ukrainian fighter jet. Russian propagandists are gradually beginning to acknowledge the Ukrainian offensive north of Lyman. As pro-Ukrainian sources reported this week, Ukrainian forces have managed to liberate 200 square kilometres of territory there over the past four months. They eliminated a Russian salient which Russia had used to threaten to encircle Sloviansk from the north. Until now, Ukrainian sources had said almost nothing about the operation. Russians are now gradually beginning to acknowledge it as well. “We do not deny that the enemy is exerting considerable pressure in this area and that our units have withdrawn from some forward positions. This is a tactical success for the Ukrainian side,” the Paratrooper’s Diary channel acknowledged. It stressed that Russian forces had managed to withdraw in time, which pro-Ukrainian sources also confirmed. The Paratrooper’s Diary wrote of 300 Russian soldiers. The channel added that the territory re-entered by Ukrainian forces was not under firm Ukrainian control, with a significant part of it remaining in the grey zone. Overall, it can be said that this source acknowledged Ukrainian successes but downplayed their significance. “The correct wording is simpler: we suffered an unpleasant tactical defeat in the Lyman sector. However, there was no encirclement; most of our soldiers were withdrawn, and everything now depends on whether the Ukrainian armed forces can exploit this success east of the Zherebets river,” it wrote. Russia had been misleading people about this territory, as other Russian channels also acknowledged. For example, the Two Majors channel wrote that the enemy had been mounting counterattacks for months and that the situation had long required the attention of commanders. The channel added that the dissemination of “good news” — about false advances — should be banned. Ukrainians struck Russia some 3,000 kms from the front line. The Ukrainian armed forces set a record on Wednesday. Their drones were able to strike a Russian target some 3,000 kms from free Ukrainian territory. Ukraine's @SOF_UKR revealed details of the attack on Novy Urengoy. As the Special Operations Forces noted, drones hit two giants of the Russian gas condensate industry - the Novy Urengoy and Purovsky plants."SOF drones covered over 3,000 kilometers to reach the target. Until… pic.twitter.com/Hl97Xo2qEf— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) September 9, 2026 The drones reached the Russian city of Novy Urengoy beyond the Urals, which lies 3,000 kms from the front line in a straight line. Local authorities reported a fire at an industrial facility. According to Ukrainian media, Ukrainian forces struck a natural-gas processing facility. This region is a major producer of the commodity in Russia. Ukraine has just struck Novy Urengoy. The Novy Urengoy Gas Condensate Processing Plant in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, located 2,890 km from Ukraine, came under attack. The facility is one of the key gas condensate infrastructure assets in the region, with a design… pic.twitter.com/FYd3zKUp1z— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) September 9, 2026 “Special Operations Forces drones flew more than 3,000 kms to reach the target. Until now, this area had been considered an absolutely safe rear area for the aggressor,” Ukrainian forces said. There is speculation that Ukrainian forces struck the area using FP-1 drones, which have such a range. Map of the day It is no longer only older conventional Russian Geran-2 drones — based on Iranian Shahed-136 drones — that are flying over the territory of Nato countries, but now also Geran-4 jet-powered drones. This map shows Tuesday’s incident. Source: Institute for the Study of War The Geran-4 flew from Ukraine first into Moldovan airspace — Moldova is not a Nato member. It did not turn around there, but continued onward and entered Romanian airspace at 16:47. By then, two Spanish F-18 fighter jets had already been in the air for eight minutes, monitoring its flight. The drone later turned around and flew out of Romania, leaving at 17:05. It spent 18 minutes in Romanian airspace. Its ability to turn around suggests that Russia was still able to control it. The drone crashed in Moldova 10 minutes later. According to available data, the drone flew over Moldova and Romania at a speed of almost 400 km per hour, confirming that it was a jet-powered type. Videos of the day This is how Ukrainians have begun protecting their petrol stations from attacks by Russian drones. Plastic strips have been hung in front of the entrance to the refuelling area, intended to catch drones. “It will not help against the Shahed type, but it will protect against optically guided FPV drones, radio-controlled drones and perhaps even small fixed-wing unmanned aircraft,” Serhii Beskrestnov wrote. A series of videos showing Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian mobile teams tasked with stopping them. Ukrainians have also begun protecting a road in northern Ukraine, far from the current fighting, with anti-drone nets. The video shows the road between Ivanivka and Chornobyl in Kyiv region. It lies close to the border with Belarus, while the nearest Russian territory is 150 km away. What are the losses No update on Thursday. By Monday (7 September), Russia had verifiably lost 24,066 pieces of heavy equipment — compared with 24,041 on Friday (4 September). Of these, 19,034 (19,009) were destroyed by Ukrainians, 1,000 (1,000) were damaged, 1,194 (1,194) were abandoned by their crews, and 2,838 (2,838) were captured by the Ukrainian army. This included 4,446 (4,441) tanks, of which 3,351 (3,346) were destroyed in combat. Ukraine lost 12,097 (12,040) pieces of equipment, of which 9,507 (9,451) were destroyed, 698 (697) damaged, 693 (693) abandoned and 1,199 (1,199) captured. This included 1,462 (1,459) tanks, of which 1,120 (1,123) were destroyed in combat. Note: Neither side regularly reports its own deaths or destroyed equipment. Ukraine publishes daily figures for Russian casualties and destroyed equipment, which cannot be independently verified. This overview uses data from the Oryx project, which has compiled a list of equipment losses documented exclusively through photographs since the start of the war.