— 01 / CHAPTER
01
TIMELINE
— 01.1 / ONE YEAR
$185 bn
military-security bloc
Russian Federation
Federal Law No. 426-FZ · 28 Nov 2025
This is an abstraction. A trillion is a number the brain can't picture. To grasp it, you have to break it down into units a human being actually counts in.
— 01.2 / ANATOMY OF A DAY
1 DAY OF WAR
= $334 mn
Russian Ministry of Defence, December 2025
10,000 UNITS
152mm SHELLS
≈ $8.8 mn
2–4 UNITS
MISSILES Kalibr, Kh-101
≈ $5.5 mn
200 UNITS
DRONES Geran-2
≈ $6.6 mn
700,000 PERSONS
CONTRACT SOLDIERS in Ukraine
≈ $54 mn/day
1 DAY OF WAR
= $334 mn
Russian Ministry of Defence, December 2025
10,000 UNITS
152mm SHELLS
≈ $8.8 mn
2–4 UNITS
MISSILES Kalibr, Kh-101
≈ $5.5 mn
200 UNITS
DRONES Geran-2
≈ $6.6 mn
700,000 PERSONS
CONTRACT SOLDIERS in Ukraine
≈ $54 mn/day
$75 mn/day — active combat costs. $334 mn/day — total expenditure on the war (Russian Ministry of Defence). The military-security bloc as a whole — $505 mn/day.
— 01.3 / UNIT OF MEASURE
To measure these numbers, you need a unit. A Russian teacher's full-time salary is ≈ $375 per month. One year of work — ≈ $4,500. That is the unit of measure.
«Rodnaya Shkola» teachers' union survey, 2025
— 01.4 / SCORE
— BLOCK 01.4.1
1 «KALIBR» MISSILE
= $1.85 mn
409 annual teacher salaries
Enough for a 25-classroom school for a decade and a half.
Leaked Russian MoD procurement contracts · 2024–2026
852 annual teacher salaries
A full year for a large teaching faculty.
Uralvagonzavod, military journalists' estimate 2026
— BLOCK 01.4.2
1 T-90M TANK
= $3.85 mn
— BLOCK 01.4.3
1 DAY OF WAR
= $334 mn
= 74,074 annual teacher salaries
In one day of war, the Russian state could pay every teacher in Moscow and St. Petersburg combined for an entire year.
— BLOCK 01.4.4 / FINAL
1 YEAR OF THE MILITARY-SECURITY BLOC
= $ 185 bn
= 41,000,000 annual teacher salaries
Russia has 1.3 million teachers. That means — for every single teacher in the country, the state spends 31 annual salaries on the war. In one year.
— 01.5 / BRIDGE
These figures are not abstract. They are specific objects and specific people. Chapter 02 shows what was chosen instead.
— METHODOLOGY
This chapter is built on open data and independent investigations. Every figure traces to a specific source. The publication makes no accusations — it consolidates what has already been published into one structure.
document open for verification. every figure verified.