Russia’s USD201B Military Budget Rivals EU’s, Kubilius Warns
Addressing the Military Schengen 2026 Conference, Kubilius said Russia is projected to commit $201 billion to its 2027 military budget, an increase of roughly 3% on this year’s figure.
“In purchasing power parity terms, Russia next year will spend the same amount, or even a little bit more, than all the EU member states,” he said.
Russia is also pulling ahead of Europe in defense industrial output and is quickly advancing new military technologies, drones among them, Kubilius said.
“If the day X would come in terms of Russian possible aggression, we need to understand that we will face a battle-tested Russian army with the ability to use 10 million drones per year,” he said.
That figure translates to about 30,000 drones every day, according to Kubilius, who added that Moscow is gearing up for “a prolonged war and confrontation.”
“Our defense readiness has to speed up,” Kubilius said.
Europe’s capacity to deter aggression, he stressed, hinges on more than defense budgets and weapons procurement. It also depends on how quickly forces and materiel can be shifted across the continent. Kubilius said military mobility must be treated as a pressing operational requirement, not a theoretical exercise.
He urged an ambitious EU military mobility package that, in his words, should effectively function as a “Military Schengen.”
Central to the plan, Kubilius said, is replacing the existing patchwork of 27 national systems with one European rulebook for military transport. Under the proposal, a single European permit would be valid throughout the EU and issued within three days at most.
For emergencies, Kubilius said the EU is proposing a new European Military Mobility Enhanced Response System, which the EU Council could activate.
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