Russia needs to be stopped in Ukraine by providing financial and military aid to Kyiv.
According to Reuters, Russia has already exhausted its approved military budget for 2023 and decided to double military spending to over $100 billion. In the first six months, Russia spent 5.59 trillion rubles on defense, 12% more than planned for the entire year. This amounts to 37.3% (against a planned 17.1%) of the total budget expenses for the first half of the year (14.97 trillion rubles) and 19.2% of the overall annual budget.
Nearly all (97.1%) of the budget increase in Russia went to the production of weapons, the military, and related items. Russia has not had such a high proportion of military spending in over a decade. Facing Western sanctions, military expenditures, and no prospect of a quick end to the war, Russian authorities are preparing to launch the “printing press,” compensating for the deficit in Russia’s state budget by increasing the money supply. Russian authorities are doing everything to continue the war of destruction in Ukraine, with the prospect of invading other European countries. If Putin doesn’t face a decisive defeat in Ukraine, he will undoubtedly pursue his mission to “reclaim” lands that were once part of the Russian Empire and the USSR.
Today, the likelihood of Russia’s war against NATO is very high, and such a scenario can no longer be considered merely hypothetical. Putin aims to turn Ukraine into a launching pad for terrorizing post-Soviet countries. Ukraine’s victory in the war against Russia directly depends on Western military aid. Western countries must halt Russia in Ukraine by providing Kyiv with additional financial and military assistance and by strengthening the sanction regime against Moscow. This is the best way to ensure victory not only for Ukraine but also for the entire democratic world against authoritarian Russia.