defense
Europe’s arms imports almost doubled because of the Ukraine war
For the first time in decades, Russia is no longer one of the world’s two largest arms suppliers. photo
© Philipp Schulze/dpa
The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has an enormous impact on the arms market. As Europe rearms, Russia is losing its former global position.
“Russia will continue to pose a massive threat in the future. Therefore, we can definitely assume that European countries will continue to place new orders and receive the significant quantities of weapons that they have already ordered in previous years,” said Sipri- Researcher Pieter Wezeman from the German Press Agency. “It is therefore to be expected that the level of deliveries and arms imports by European countries will continue to rise in the coming years.” Overall, global arms transfers from all countries fell slightly by 3.3 percent.
Russia is losing significant export power
For the first time in decades, Russia is no longer one of the two largest arms suppliers. While the USA at the top increased its arms exports by a further 17 percent, deliveries from Russia fell by more than half (53 percent). Russia, which had previously been in second place, slipped just behind France, which increased its export volume by 47 percent.
“I think one of the biggest surprises is still that the decline in Russian arms sales was even faster than expected,” Wezeman said of the development. However, this should be viewed with caution, because Russia still has some business ahead of it – as long as it can fulfill them on time or even produce the armaments. Nevertheless, “It is remarkable to see that Russia has fallen so far and so quickly, and that in turn leads to the West’s dominant role in arming the world,” said the expert.
While Russia exported important weapons to 31 countries in 2019, last year it was only 12. With 11 percent of global export volume, Russia ranks third behind France – ten percentage points less than in the previous comparable period. The three largest buyers of Russian weapons are India, China and Egypt.
The USA remained the undisputed number one exporter: in the period 2019 to 2023 it supplied 107 countries. That is more than in any previous five-year period and far more than any other arms exporter. A full 42 percent of global arms deliveries go to major suppliers – a global increase of 8 percentage points compared to the previous comparable period. Followed by France, Russia, China and Germany in fifth place among global arms suppliers – all together accounting for around 75 percent of total arms exports.
Ukraine is one of the world leaders in arms imports
At least 30 countries supplied Ukraine with large quantities of military equipment following the Russian invasion in February 2022, mostly in the form of military aid. Ukraine was by far the largest arms importer in the world in 2023. The USA supplied 39 percent of Ukraine’s arms imports, followed by Germany (14 percent) and Poland (13 percent). Looking at the entire period from 2019 to 2023, the Ukrainians ranked fourth among global arms importers, just behind India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The Sipri data refers to the volume of arms shipments, not their financial value. Since the volume can fluctuate greatly from year to year depending on the order situation, the independent institute actually focuses on five-year periods instead of individual years. However, they made an exception in Ukraine due to the war.
The German arms market is still very popular
Germany is also one of the “Big Five” in the weapons industry. In the five-year period, German arms exports fell by 14 percent compared to 2014 to 2018. The share of German arms exports accounted for 5.6 percent of the global total volume. For Israel, Germany was one of the largest suppliers, with 30 percent of the country’s arms imports, behind the USA (69 percent). Germany is also one of the two largest countries of origin for Ukraine’s arms imports.
“We don’t normally talk about year-on-year comparisons, but it is remarkable to see that last year in particular, German arms exports reached an annual high that is significantly higher than in previous years,” said researcher Wezeman. This could indicate that German arms exports will continue to rise in the coming years.