The cash register is clicking at the arms manufacturers – the war is a brutal burden for Ukraine

According to a report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) on Monday, a fever of armaments at a level not seen for many decades has taken over the world.

Global military spending rose to $2,443 billion (!) last year, a 6.8 percent increase from 2022—the largest increase since 2009. A larger expenditure than this has never been registered in the 60 years of the institute’s existence.

Moreover, for the first time, growth was recorded in all five regions, i.e. in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

The USA leads

Unsurprisingly, the first place on the list is the United States, whose military spending – showing an increase of 2.3 percent – reached 916 billion dollars last year. This is 37 percent of global spending and 3.4 percent of US GDP.

According to the report, since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, Washington has increasingly focused on developing new weapons systems that can be used against enemies with “advanced military capabilities.”

In second place is China, which increased its spending of this kind by six percent to $296 billion. This is 12 percent of global spending and 1.7 percent of China’s GDP. The United States and China together account for about half of global military spending.

The third place – also unsurprisingly – was grabbed by Russia. Moscow significantly increased its military spending by 24 percent to $109 billion compared to 2022. This is 4.5 percent of global spending and 5.9 percent of Russian GDP. (In the case of China and Russia, these are estimated data – ed.)

Brutal Ukrainian burdens

Ukraine’s defense spending jumped even more by 51 percent, totaling $64.8 billion last year.

This is the 8th highest value globally and represents 37 (!) percent of Ukraine’s GDP and 58 (!) percent of total government spending.

In addition, the country received at least $35 billion worth of military aid from its allies, mostly from the United States. Between 2014 and 2023, Ukraine’s military spending “by the way” jumped by 1,272 (!) percent – in the case of Russia, “only” a 57 percent increase was recorded during this period.

In addition to Russia and Ukraine, Great Britain ($74.9 billion), Germany ($66.8 billion) and France ($61.3 billion) also entered the top 10 from Europe. Next to them, India ($83.6 billion), Saudi Arabia ($75.8 billion) and Japan ($50.2 billion) are also among the top ten.

In the Middle East, after Saudi Arabia, Israel spent the most, 27.5 billion dollars, on military expenditures, which is a 24 percent increase compared to 2022 – the significant increase can be attributed primarily to the war in Gaza. (The Jewish state is still mainly supplied with weapons by the United States.)

Hungary is not included in the top 40, in which only Romania, along with Ukraine, was among our neighbors.

Our neighbor to the east is ranked 39th with spending of $5.6 billion, which is 1.6 percent of their GDP – although this represents a 4.7 percent decrease compared to 2022.

Conflicts may escalate

Overall, however, the growth is clear and corresponds to the wishes that NATO and EU leaders place on member countries.

“Now that we are facing the biggest security threat since the Second World War, it is high time to take radical and concrete steps for defense preparedness, and to put the EU economy on a ‘war footing’, for example, wrote Charles Michel, President of the iCouncil of Europe, in March to member state leaders, referring to the Russian-Ukrainian war.

On another occasion, he recalled the ancient saying that those who want peace must prepare for war.

“The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global decline in peace and security,” Nan Tian, ​​one of the authors of the current research, told The Guardian at the same time.

At the same time, he also warned that this entails a serious risk of escalation – the risk of the expansion and/or deepening of the war(s): “States prefer military force, but at the same time they risk starting a action-reaction spiral”.