Russian weapons and ammunition production and supply have risen more than 22-fold since the invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin claimed on September 18.

“The production and supply of weapons and ammunition, including high-precision missiles and shells, has increased more than 22-fold. Supplies of radar stations have increased almost fivefold, and armoured vehicle weapons have increased two and a half times,” Putin said at the ceremony, held ahead of Russia’s annual Gunsmith Day, Interfax reported.

Drone output had grown “several-fold, and for some classes, tens of times”, he said, without attaching a number to any individual type.

Putin dated the rise to the start of the invasion in February 2022, but the reported remarks give no absolute volume or explanation of how different weapons were combined. A June 2023 archive report estimated Russian pre-war output at 1.7mn artillery shells a year. That estimate cannot establish or disprove a multiplier covering a wider category of weapons and ammunition.

Estimates for individual missile types offer a narrower comparison. A RUSI report on the war’s third year by Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds put Russia’s defence ministry plans for 2025 at 750 Iskander ballistic missiles and 560 Kh-101 cruise missiles. Ukrainian military intelligence said in August that monthly missile output was running 10-20% above plan, with 87 Kh-101s built in July and the full-year targets for the Zircon and Oniks already met.

Putin has previously cited increases covering different periods and categories, which are not directly comparable. At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2023 he said defence production had tripled in a year. Visiting the Motovilikha plants in Perm in September 2025 he said output of some items had grown almost 30-fold.

Putin also said Russia’s arms-export order book had passed $70bn and that the country “is confidently taking a leading position in the global arms market”. An order book counts contracts signed rather than weapons delivered or revenue banked.

Russia’s draft budget presented in September 2025 proposed the first defence spending cut since the invasion, to RUB12.6 trillion ($149.1bn at the draft’s stated conversion rate) for 2026 from RUB13.5 trillion. These were budget plans, not a measure of weapons output.

Repurposed RM48U training missiles accounted for more than half of 228 confirmed Russian ballistic and hypersonic launches in July and the first eight days of August, Reuters reported on September 18, and Ukrainian intelligence expects RM48U output to reach 480 units this year from 200 in 2025. Such weapons can put pressure on Kyiv’s stock of scarce interceptors. Earlier reporting has described Russia’s widening lead in missile and drone production.