Sipri: Ukraine has become the largest importer of weapons in the world

Ukraine has become the world's largest weapon importer for the period from 2020 to 2024. This is stated in the study of the Stockholm International Institute for the Research of World (StockHolm International Peace Research Institute - Sipri ).

According to Sipri, after the start of the Russian invasion, at least 35 countries sent weapons to Ukraine. In 2020-2024, Ukraine accounted for 8.8% of the global weapons imports.

Most of the supply to Ukraine came to the USA (45%), Germany (12%) and Poland (11%). The study notes that Ukraine was the only European state that was part of the top 10 largest importers for the period from 2020 to 2024-despite the fact that many other European countries significantly increased the import of weapons at this time.

“The new data on the supply of weapons clearly reflect the process of rearmament among European countries in response to a threat from Russia,” said Matthew George, director of the Sipri program for the supply of weapons.

The import of weapons by European NATO members for the period from 2020 to 2024 increased more than double (+105%) compared to the 2015-2019 period. The United States delivered 64% of this weapons, which is much more than in 2015-19 (52%). Other main suppliers were France (6.5%), South Korea (6.5%), Germany (4.7%), Israel (3.9%).

The export of weapons from the United States has increased by 21% over the past four years compared to the 2015-19 period. The share of the United States in world export of weapons increased from 35% to 43%. In 2020-24, the United States delivered weapons to 107 states. For the first time in 20 years, the largest share of American weapons exports came to Europe (35%), not the Middle East (33%).

The Russian export of weapons has sharply decreased over the past four years (by 64%) compared to the 2015-2019 period, the study said. The decrease began even before a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, Sipri notes.

“The war against Ukraine has further accelerated the fall of Russian weapons exports, because the battlefield requires more weapons, trade sanctions make it difficult to produce and sell their weapons to Russia, and the USA and their allies put pressure on the states so that they do not buy Russian weapons,” the study says.

In 2020-24, Russia supplied the main types of weapons to 33 states. Two -thirds of Russian arms exports accounted for three countries: India (38%), China (17%) and Kazakhstan (11%).