Illia Kabachynskyi

Russia is heading into 2027 with a 5.5 trillion ruble ($65 billion) hole in its budget. But no one believes it will stop there: the 2026 deficit is expected to reach at least twice its originally planned level. Tax hikes will cover only part of the gap, while Moscow’s last hope—domestic borrowing—is already showing signs of strain.

Russia is preparing to spend more than $200 billion on its military in 2027—more than ever before—even as oil and gas revenues weaken and its budget deficit widens. So where will the money come from? Increasingly, the answer is debt, higher taxes on Russians and businesses, and billions that Moscow continues to earn from energy exports—including sales linked to Europe.

September proved catastrophic for the Russian military. Over 46,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded—the Kremlin’s heaviest monthly personnel losses of 2026.

Al Jazeera’s comparison of Russian and Ukrainian strikes leaves out crucial context—from what its figures actually measure and the scale of destruction they obscure to the eight years of Russia’s war against Ukraine preceding the full-scale invasion.

Ukraine’s Third Army Corps says it cleared another 51 km² in the third phase of Operation Vivaldi, liberated the key settlement of Nove, and inflicted around 2,000 personnel losses on Russian forces after deceiving them about the counteroffensive’s main axis of attack.

In New York, representatives of 51 countries gathered to call on Russia to halt the attacks. In Kyiv, missiles and drones filled the skies as the capital came under Russian bombardment, killing people and wounding dozens more.