A Russian Finance Ministry document published Thursday said that Moscow will increase the defense budget by about 70% in 2024 while pumping resources into its large-scale offensive in Ukraine.

As a result, the Kremlin considered increasing defense spending “necessary” because of the “hybrid war against Russia.”

Since the start of the war last year, Russia has increased its arms industry and pumped huge amounts of money into its military machinery, despite high inflation and the weak value of the ruble.

The document stated that defense expenditures are expected to rise by more than 68% on an annual basis, to reach 10.8 trillion rubles ($111.15 billion), which constitutes about 6% of the gross domestic product, i.e. more than the spending allocated to social policy.

Defense expenditures are expected to be three times higher than education, environmental protection and healthcare expenditures combined in 2024, figures calculated by Agence France-Presse show.

“The focus of economic policy is shifting from the anti-crisis agenda to promoting national development goals,” the Finance Ministry said in the document.

It added that this includes "strengthening the country's defense capacity" and "integrating" the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow announced its annexation last year - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhya.

The increase in defense expenditures comes as the Central Bank warned that economic growth is expected to slow in the second half of 2023, with the inflation rate rising above the bank’s target of four percent.