Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which dates back to Feb. 24, has apparently come with an exorbitant price tag.
According to Russian Ministry of Finance data released Tuesday, Russia has spent nearly 1 billion rubles — or a burn rate of approximately $15.5 million per hour — on the Ukraine war.
The data also reveals Russia invested 628 billion rubles into the war effort during April, which breaks down to 21 billion rubles per day, citing a report from The Moscow Times.
That daily amount alone might be comparable to the annual budget of some entire regions in Russia, according to the Times.
As such, Russia's defense budget has more than doubled since the war began nearly three full months ago.
In January, the Russian government reportedly spent 233.7 billion rubles on the military, and that figure increased to 369 billion in February when Russia began moving troops and equipment to the Ukraine borders, in anticipation of a strategic attack.
In April, Russia's national defense budget mushroomed to approximately 628 billion rubles — a 43.7% increase from the previous April (275 billion rubles).
All told, from January through April, the Times reports Russia spent a grand total of 1.681 trillion rubles on military expenses.
That amounts to more than three times the monies earmarked for education (517 billion rubles) and healthcare (615 billion rubles) in Russia, according to the Times.
In late April, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia's budget had gone from a surplus to a projected deficit of 1.6 trillion rubles.
Siluanov also said the country's National Wealth Fund (NWF) would be used as the main source for financing the budget deficit.
"If revenues will be higher than planned, we will spend less from the NWF," Siluanov said about accessing Russia's rainy day funds, which apparently contain oil revenues. "In the opposite case, then we will spend more from it."
Russia's war with Ukraine has become an exercise in attrition for the Russian forces, who've had to deal with apparent dissension among the ranks, the deaths of battlefield generals, and a reported shortage of sophisticated guidance missiles.
Also on Sunday, the British Ministry of Defense released a report, estimating Russia has already lost one-third of its ground forces.
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