Ukraine has become the largest arms importer in Europe - SIPRI

Ukraine has become the largest arms importer in Europe - SIPRI

In 2019-2023, Ukraine became the largest European arms importer in Europe. It is noteworthy that during this period, arms imports by European countries were 94% higher than in 2014-2018. Overall, the growth of European arms exports in recent years has reached record levels.

At the same time, Russian arms exports have almost halved over the past five years. This is stated in the analysis of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, about 30 states have supplied major weapons to Ukraine as military aid. However, the 55% of European arms imports supplied by the US in 2019–2023 was a significant increase from 35% in 2014–2018.

After the United States, the next largest arms suppliers were Germany and France, accounting for 6.4% and 4.6% of imports, respectively.

SIPRI Arms Transfer Program Senior Researcher Peter Weseman is confident that European arms imports are likely to remain high. He attributes this to orders for expensive weapons, including about 800 combat aircraft and helicopters. He also noted that over the past two years there has been a great demand for air defense systems in Europe, in particular due to Russia’s missile terror against Ukraine.

Analysts noted that in 2019-2023, Russian arms exports fell by 53% compared to previous years. In 2019, Russia exported major weapons to 31 states, but already in 2023, the terrorist country exported to only 12 states.

At the same time, in 2019, the states of Asia and Oceania received 68% of the total volume of Russian arms exports. The largest share of Russian weapons comes from India and China.