The Russian invasion of Ukraine had a significant impact on the global arms trade. In its annual report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) compared the period 2019-2023 with 2014-2018 and found a number of drastic changes.
Over the past 5 years, arms exports from Russia have fallen by 53% compared to the period 2014-2018. As recently as 2019, Moscow exported weapons to 31 countries of the world, and in 2023 there were only 12 of them. The main export markets for the Russian military industry were the countries of Asia and Oceania (68%), in particular, Russia exported 34% of weapons to India, and to China — 21%.
For the first time, Russia became the worldʼs third arms exporter, ceding second place to France, which increased its exports by 47% in the period 2019-2023 (compared to 2014-2018).
The USA remains the worldʼs leading exporter. In the reporting period, they increased their supplies by 17%, and their share in total world arms exports increased from 34% to 42%. 107 countries bought American weapons.
Among the ten other largest arms exporters, after the USA, France and Russia, growth in exports was recorded in two — Italy increased by 86%, South Korea — by 12%.
Meanwhile, Ukraine became the largest European importer of arms in 2019-2023 and the fourth largest in the world after at least 30 countries supplied Ukraine with major weapons as part of military aid since February 2022. The countryʼs share in the global world arms import market is 4.9% compared to 0.1% in the previous five-year period. At the same time, the overall growth of military imports compared to 2014-2018 was a record 6 633%. The main suppliers of weapons to Kyiv were the USA (39%), Germany and Poland, respectively 14% and 13%.
The full-scale war affected not only the growth of arms imports by Kyiv, but also the structure of orders. The reaction of the countries of Western and Central Europe, which fear the expansion of Russian aggression, was the increase in the import of air defense systems. For example, in 2023, Poland ordered 48 Patriot launchers, 644 missiles for them, as well as various sensors, auxiliary equipment and spare parts from the United States. The total amount of the deal is estimated at $15 billion.
At the same time, Germany intends to pay Israel almost €4 billion for the latest Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system, capable of hitting targets at an altitude of more than 100 kilometers. And German air defense systems will be supplied to Austria, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia.