Since the beginning of 2025, Russia has spent approximately $13.4 billion on massive shelling of Ukrainian cities. This amount is comparable to Ethiopia’s annual budget for 2021.
This is reported by Finway
“Shahed” Drones and Their Role in Russian Attacks
In the first seven months of this year, over $5 billion has been allocated for the purchase and use of “Shahed” kamikaze drones, as well as their imitators. These unmanned aerial vehicles have become a key tool in Russia’s air attacks. According to estimates, during this period, Russia launched nearly 29,000 long-range drones, which together carried between 1.4 to 1.7 million kilograms of explosives. The highest number of such devices was used by Russia in July — over 6,000 units.
“The exact ratio of how many ‘Shaheds’ and how many of their imitators are flying is unknown. As of May, Russia was producing 2,700 ‘Shaheds’ and 2,500 imitators per month, Forbes Ukraine was told by the Main Intelligence Directorate. In the attack on June 17, out of 440 drones, about 280 were ‘real’ ‘Shaheds’, according to the Air Force. The estimated ratio is about 55-65% in favor of the real ‘Shaheds’ — approximately 16,000-19,000 such drones have been launched by Russia since the beginning of the year. Each of them has a warhead of up to 90 kg. In total, ‘Shaheds’ have brought 1,400-1,700 tons of explosives to Ukraine since the beginning of the year,” the authors note.
It is known that one ‘Shahed’ costs Russia approximately $200,000. Thus, the total expenses for these drones are estimated to be around $5.7 billion in just seven months of 2025.
Missile Attacks and Their Cost for Russia
In addition to drones, Russia has actively used various types of missiles. Since the beginning of the year, 932 missiles have been launched with a total explosive mass of about 400,000 kilograms. Their estimated cost reaches $7.7 billion.
- 311 out of 932 missiles were ballistic;
- 235 ‘Iskander-M’/KN-23/24 — totaling $1 billion;
- 47 S-300 surface-to-air missiles — totaling $10 million;
- 29 ‘Kinzhal’ air-launched ballistic missiles — totaling $290 million;
- More than 600 cruise missiles, including 451 X-101/Iskander-K missiles amounting to $6.2 billion.
Thus, Russia’s total expenditures on missile and drone attacks against Ukraine in just seven months of 2025 amount to approximately $13.4 billion, confirming the scale of resources that the aggressor is directing towards waging war.