Analysis-Even with sanctions, Russia can afford to feed its war machine

FILE PHOTO: Service members of pro-Russian troops drive armoured vehicles during Ukraine-Russia conflict on a road outside the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 10, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia can afford to wage a long war in Ukraine despite being hammered by Western sanctions aimed at crippling its ability to sustain the campaign, defence experts and economists say.

Russia's invasion has driven up the price of the oil, gas and grain it exports, providing it with a substantial windfall to fund its "special military operation" - now entering a new phase as Moscow focuses on the eastern Donbas region after failing to break Ukraine's defence of the capital Kyiv.