Ever More Russian Regions Slashing Healthcare Spending as Putin’s War in Ukraine Continues

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 10 – In 2025, five federal subjects cut spending on healthcare by more than ten percent; this year, the number that have slashed spending on that critical sector has increased to 19, nearly a quarter of all subjects and the largest number and largest total cut in medical spending since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine in 2022.

            Hardest hit so has been the Vologda Oblast where spending on medical operations fell by 39 percent year on year. Irkutsk and Kemerovo oblasts cut their spending by more than 30 percent; and Moscow and Volgograd each cut their by more than a quarter, the Important Stories portal says (istories.media/stories/2026/03/10/v-2026-godu-rekordnoe-za-vremya-voini-chislo-regionov-sokratili-raskhodi-na-zdravookhranenie/

            “Even in regions where budget cuts are smaller,” the portal says, “the primary healthcare sector is struggling,” especially outside the regional capitals. And that means among other things that Russians on average are getting less medical care than they need or even the amount that they had before Putin launched his expanded war.

            Some regional leaders have tried to keep the cuts from being too deep by borrowing from banks, but the Kremlin frowns on this – and has even made the amount of such debate a key performance indicator in its rating of governors, a fact of life that is keeping ever more governors from trying to do so.

            That means the healthcare of Russians is declining and likely will continue to do so as long as the war continues, something neither regional leaders nor the population have any control over but that both recognize is the result of a Moscow policy that is increasing their suffering at a rapid rate.