Moscow – Russia yesterday announced a sharp increase in its defense budget, of almost 70%, to confront what it calls a “hybrid war” in Ukraine, just when Western allies are in Kiev to respond to requests for more military aid .
Ukraine, engaged in a laborious counteroffensive since June, believes it needs more help from its partners to repel the Russian invasion, which it believes is a threat to all of Europe. In this context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in kyiv.
The French and British Defense Ministers were also in Ukraine yesterday, and today the capital will host an international forum focused on the defense industry.
In Moscow, the Kremlin announced an increase in the 2024 Defense budget by 68%, reaching 10.8 trillion rubles, 112 billion dollars at the current exchange rate.
According to Moscow, the West, with its support for Ukraine, is waging a “hybrid war” against Russia.
“It is clear that this increase is necessary, absolutely necessary, because we are in a state of hybrid war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters. “I am referring to the hybrid war that is being waged against us, and that requires high spending,” he emphasized.
Defense will thus account for around 30% of total federal spending in 2024 and 6% of GDP, something unusual in the history of post-Soviet Russia.
This volume of public spending illustrates Russia’s determination to continue its campaign in Ukraine, launched in February 2022. Currently, and after a series of setbacks last year, the Russian army is entrenched in eastern and southern Ukraine.
According to kyiv’s Western allies, Russia has launched an imperialist war in Ukraine, and support for Zelensky’s government is essential to confront Moscow’s ambitions.
From the Ukrainian capital, and together with President Zelensky, Stoltenberg thus denounced Moscow’s “imperialist delusions,” and affirmed that Ukrainians “fight for their families” and “their freedom.”
The head of the Atlantic Alliance welcomed the recent progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, although limited in both the east and the south.
“Their forces are advancing. They face fierce fighting, but they gain ground little by little,” said Stoltenberg.
The Norwegian highlighted that since the beginning of the conflict, a coalition of about 50 countries has promised around $100 billion in military aid to Ukraine, half of it coming from the United States.
Zelensky insisted that his country needs more anti-aircraft means to confront “Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.”
And the president fears that, like last year, Moscow will attack energy infrastructure to leave millions of Ukrainians cold and in the dark.
“For Moscow, the prospect of its neighbor joining NATO is a red line. President Vladimir Putin justified the offensive launched in February 2022 in the desire that, according to him, NATO has to use Ukraine as a spearhead to contain Moscow.
Source: Ambito
