Yakutia Has Run Out Of Money To Pay Russian Occupiers
- 22.11.2025, 20:03
There are huge deficits in the region's budget.
Yakutia's budget has run out of money for participants in the war against Ukraine, the republic's Finance Minister Ivan Alekseev said on air on the Sakha TV channel.
According to him, payments to contract workers have been suspended at the moment. "Unfortunately, we do have such a situation," Alexeyev admitted, adding that part of the reason lies in the fact that the authorities cannot "calculate in advance how many people will need" payments. At the same time, he assured that the problem will be solved "in a few days". The regional budget allocates funds for one-time payments upon signing a contract with the Defense Ministry, when a serviceman is wounded, as well as in case of death, writes The Moscow Times.
By the end of 2024, more than 8,000 Yakutians participated in the war against Ukraine, said Deputy Commander of the Eastern Military District for Military and Political Work Lieutenant General Roman Grekov. It is known from public data that as of Nov. 20, at least 1,954 residents of the republic have died on the front. In May, the Yakutian authorities increased the regional lump-sum payment for sending to war by 500 thousand rubles. For those who signed a contract until December 31, 2025 for a period of at least a year, it amounts to 1.8 million rubles. Also, the minimum lump-sum payment from municipal districts and urban districts was raised to 400 thousand rubles.
In the first half of the year Yakutia faced a serious budget deficit, which amounted to 24.4 billion rubles, almost ten times the approved annual amount of 2.8 billion rubles. The republic's state debt increased by 26.5% to 69.8 billion rubles. The draft budget for 2026 provides for revenues of 309.7 billion rubles, expenditures of 317.3 billion rubles and a deficit of 7.5 billion rubles.
The republic's government canceled regional payments to families of military men killed in Ukraine, which amounted to 1.1 million rubles.
In 2024, the Khakassia government allocated almost 600 million rubles for material assistance to war veterans, reported the head of the region Valentin Konovalov. This year this amount fell to 287 million rubles. The deficit of Khakassia's budget for next year is 7.07 billion rubles. The head of the regional Finance Ministry Igor Tuguzhekov expressed fears that revenues would be lower than planned, making the "hole" even bigger.
In August, the government of St. Petersburg canceled a payment of 1.6 million rubles for contracting volunteers.