Kathrine Frich
A Ukrainian report cited by the Daily Express mocked the Russian leader directly.
Trade embargoes are supposed to slam the door shut between rival nations.
On paper, hostile governments stop doing business the moment a conflict breaks out.
Yet the brutal reality of modern warfare has forced one leader to keep shopping inside enemy territory.
Shopping in NATO territory
According to the Daily Express, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been forced to buy a massive supply of artificial limbs from NATO countries to treat wounded soldiers returning from Ukraine.
In the first six months of 2026 alone, Moscow bought £66 million worth of prosthetic limbs and joints from Germany, more than five times what it brought in before the invasion began.
Across the wider European Union, Russian orders hit £126 million in the year leading up to June, nearly doubling pre-war figures and drawing in NATO members Belgium and the Netherlands.
A Ukrainian report cited by the Daily Express mocked the Russian leader directly: “You’re at war with NATO. You could have ordered them from friendly North Korea or Myanmar.”
Even with strict Western sanctions in place, Berlin legally ships these medical parts under humanitarian exemptions that protect essential healthcare supplies.
German companies such as Ottobock lead the global market in bionic joints and computer-controlled knees, technology that Russia’s sanctioned local factories simply cannot build on their own.
Meanwhile, Russian Forbes reported that the Kremlin is also buying prosthetics from beyond the EU to cope with casualties from its “meat-grinder” frontlines.
The staggering human cost
Figures from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Wednesday, October 28, showed that Moscow has lost more than 1.58 million dead and wounded troops since February 24, 2022, including 1,510 in a single day.
While Kyiv keeps its own casualty numbers secret, the Daily Express noted that Russian hardware losses have reached £153 billion, including 12,448 tanks, 51,674 artillery systems, 25,609 armoured vehicles, 449 aircraft, and 356 helicopters.
Supporting injured fighters and grieving families now costs Moscow over £71 million every day in state payouts.
Ukrainian military analysts calculated that Putin’s wasted war funds could have built 1,000 schools, 200 hospitals, and 6,200 miles of highway, the Daily Express reported.
That same money could have doubled pensions, boosted family aid, and handed roughly £9,400 to every Russian baby born since the invasion started, making each child a rouble millionaire.
