Russia Spent $131M on January 20 Strike—Money That Could Build a Modern Oncology Center

Ukraine’s military intelligence said Russia spent more than $131 million on a single mass air attack against Ukraine on the night of January 20, calling the sum comparable to the annual budget of the Russian city of Veliky Novgorod , according to Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on January 23. 

In its statement, the agency said Russian forces used 372 “air attack assets,” including Iskander ballistic missiles, a Zircon hypersonic missile, Kh-101 cruise missiles, RM-48U training missiles and drones it identified as Geran, Harpia and Gerbera.

Russian drone and missile strikes on January 20 killed four people—three in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and one in the Kyiv region surrounding the capital. 

Ukraine’s Air Force, in a separate account of that overnight strike, said Russia launched 34 missiles and 339 attack drones and decoy drones, and that Ukrainian defenses shot down 27 missiles and 315 drones. 

Ukraine’s military intelligence also said the $131 million figure was comparable to roughly one-third of the annual budgets of Russia’s Kalmykia region and the Nenets Autonomous District, and argued the same amount could have funded major domestic projects such as a fully equipped oncology center. 

The intelligence agency linked the scale of spending on strikes to Russia’s wider fiscal position, noting that Russia ran a 2025 federal budget deficit of 5.6 trillion roubles, or $72.12 billion, equivalent to 2.6% of GDP, Reuters reported on January 19, citing official data. 

Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine’s military intelligence highlighted the large number of Russian strike and decoy drones in its arsenal and argued that using expensive interceptors against low‑cost drones is economically unsustainable, underscoring the cost pressures in air defense.

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