Russia used over $131M worth of drones, missiles in Jan 20 strike on Ukraine – HUR
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence (HUR) said this in a post on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.
According to the agency, this amount equals the annual budget of the city of Veliky Novgorod, with a population of about 220,000. It is also comparable to one third of the annual budgets of entire Russian regions such as Kalmykia and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
The funds spent on the massive bombardment could have been used to build a modern, fully equipped oncology center capable of saving thousands of lives. The same amount would have been sufficient to implement hundreds of social projects not only at the regional but also at the national level.
"Such expenditures on an aggressive strike against peaceful Ukrainian cities are taking place against the backdrop of a record budget deficit – last year it reached 5.6 trillion rubles ($70 billion), or about 2.6% of GDP," the intelligence agency said.
According to the HUR, to continue financing its war machine, Moscow is being forced to raise taxes and excise duties, cut spending on the social sector, and scale back state investment projects.
Despite peace rhetoric and a systemic crisis in the economy and social sphere, Russia continues to fund a genocidal war against the Ukrainian people.
On the night of January 19-20, the Russian army attacked Ukraine with a Zircon anti-ship missile, 18 Iskander-M/S-300 ballistic missiles, 15 Kh-101 cruise missiles, and 339 drones of various types.
Ukraine's air defense forces engaged a substantial number of enemy targets, as Ukraine had received the necessary missiles shortly before the strike.
Photo: Ukrainian Air Force
