Vladimir Putin has approved a record military budget in a bid to end the Ukraine war as he dictates a third of Russia’s 2025 GDP to ‘national defence’.

Around 32.5 per cent of the budget posted on a government website Sunday has been allocated for national defense, amounting to 13.5trillion rubles (over £99billion), up from a reported 28.3 per cent this year.

Lawmakers in both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and Federation Council, had already approved the plans in the past 10 days.

It comes after Russia lost more than 2,030 troops in just a day on the frontlines of Ukraine, Kyiv officials claimed – a figure that if true represents a record daily high in the near-three-year-long war.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022 is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has drained the resources of both sides.

Kyiv has been getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies, but Russia’s forces are bigger and better equipped, and in recent months the Russian army has gradually been pushing Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas.

New European Council President Antonio Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas arrived in Kyiv on Sunday, marking their first day in office with a strong message of support for Ukraine.

Their visit comes as doubts are deepening over what Kyiv can expect from a new US administration led by Donald Trump.

‘From day one of the war, the EU has stood by the side of Ukraine,’ Costa posted on X, together with a photo of himself, Kallas and EU enlargement chief Marta Kos.

‘From day one of our mandate, we are reaffirming our unwavering support to the Ukrainian people.’

Speaking at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, Costa reiterated the EU’s recent commitment to help Ukraine continue through the war, including £3.7billion to support Ukraine’s budget and £1.4billion of assistance every month from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.

Asked whether the EU would step up funding if Trump withdrew support, Costa said the block would ‘stand for Ukraine as long as necessary.’

Zelensky said that any future ceasefire negotiations with Russia would need to include representatives from the EU and NATO, because Ukraine seem its future security in both alliances.

However, he said he failed to see what any such negotiations would focus on, adding that Ukraine would ‘never legally recognise any occupation of our lands by the Russian Federation.’

Zelensky urged the outgoing Biden administration to use the remaining two months in office to exert influence ‘over those few European skeptics about our future’.

‘I see nothing, I personally see no risks, and most NATO countries see no risks from the recommendation regarding the positive future of Ukraine’s membership in NATO,’ he added.

Zelensky said Friday that an offer of NATO membership to territory under Kyiv’s control would end ‘the hot stage of the war’.

It comes after Putin vowed to use ‘all means of destruction available to Russia’ if the West gives Kyiv nuclear weapons.

The Russian President asked on Thursday: ‘If the country which we are essentially at war with now becomes a nuclear power, what do we do?

‘In this case, we will use all, I want to emphasise this, precisely all means of destruction available to Russia,’ Putin continued during the press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

‘Everything: we will not allow it. We’ll be watching their every move.’

‘If officially someone were to transfer something, then that would mean a violation of all the non-proliferation commitments they have made,’ Putin concluded.

Putin also said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of ‘dirty bomb’, a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material in order to spread contamination.

In that case, Russia would respond appropriately, he said.

Putin also made a direct threat to Zelensky as he warned Moscow could soon begin to strike ‘decision-making centres’ in Kyiv if Ukraine continues to hit targets in Russia with US and UK missiles.

Russian attacks have not yet struck government buildings in the Ukrainian capital which is heavily protected by air defences.

But Putin claims Russia’s new ‘Oreshnik’ hypersonic missile, which it fired for the first time at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week in response to the first ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes in Russia, is incapable of being intercepted.

The debris from the medium-range ballistic missile that was fired at Dnipro on November 21 is now being studied by Ukrainian investigators as it historically became the first time such a powerful weapon has been used in the war.

Ukraine said the weapon reached a top speed of more than 8,000mph as it headed towards Dnipro.

On the ground in Ukraine, three people died in the southern city of Kherson when a Russian drone struck a minibus on Sunday morning, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said seven others were wounded in the attack.

Meanwhile, the number of wounded in Saturday’s missile strike in Dnipro in central Ukraine rose to 24, with seven in serious condition, Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Serhiy Lysak said four people were killed in the attack.

Moscow sent 78 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said.

According to Ukraine’s air force, 32 drones were destroyed and a further 45 drones were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

In Russia, a child was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, according to regional Governor Alexander Bogomaz.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 29 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia: 20 over the Bryansk region, seven over the Kaluga region, and one each over the Smolensk and Kursk regions.