New foreign secretary David Cameron meets Zelensky
Vladimir Putin has signed a record national budget aimed at boosting the military amid staggering losses on the battlefield.
After the budget was passed by the lower house of the parliament, speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said it was developed specifically to fund the military and to mitigate the impact of international sanctions imposed after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Part of the Russian budget is secret as the Kremlin tries to conceal its military plans and sidestep scrutiny of its operation in Ukraine.
But independent business journalists Farida Rustamova and Maksim Tovkaylo said this month that around 39 per cent of all federal spending will go towards defence and law enforcement in 2024.
It comes as data published by the UK Ministry of Defence, provided by Ukraine’s General Staff, showed the number of Russians casualties had risen to an average 931 a day this month.
UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Putin is stepping up his invasion - senselessly sending more Russians to die than at any time since the war began.”
