Russia’s economy during wartime is said to be in critical condition, with Putin receiving warnings after spending over £400 million in a single night on a significant drone attack in Ukraine. The Kremlin conducted a massive missile and drone assault on Ukraine, resulting in 15 fatalities and over 100 injuries. Putin authorized the deployment of 73 missiles and 656 drones, totaling around £400 million in costs, causing casualties in Dnipro and Kyiv.
Despite Ukraine’s defense efforts intercepting a significant portion of the attack, with 40 missiles and 602 drones neutralized, about 38 targets were still hit. Reports surfaced that top financial authorities in the Kremlin alerted Putin to the unsustainable nature of his war expenditure as the Russian economy faces severe challenges. The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia highlighted “critical risks” to stability due to the escalating deficit in Ukraine.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence has accumulated a substantial deficit of approximately three trillion rubles (£30 billion) this year. Despite the financial strain, the Ministry has pushed back against budget cuts and requested additional funding to intensify military actions in Ukraine, leading Putin to make cuts in other departments to compensate for the shortfall.
Simultaneously, Ukrainian drones attacked the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar region for the 16th time during the conflict. Russia is on the brink of a recession following a downgrade in growth forecasts in May, prompting Putin to demand explanations for the country’s economic turmoil. Although Russia received a boost earlier from a spike in oil prices due to the conflict in Iran, the gains are insufficient to cover the substantial budget deficit.
In a blow to Russia’s covert oil operations, the British and French navies collaborated to seize one of Russia’s shadow fleet tankers. The sanctioned vessel, Tagor, was captured west of Brittany, with the French President labeling the operation as a significant setback to Putin’s Ukrainian invasion funding. Russia denounced the seizure as “illegal,” accusing it of verging on piracy, while the French president criticized Putin’s shadow fleet as a crucial revenue source for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.