Warning numbers: The whole world is arming at a record high. Russia and Ukraine did not have the biggest increase

As early as 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a huge buildup of weapons in Moscow, Kiev and Europe. This trend continued last year. For both warring countries, the military became the biggest expenditure. In 2023, Ukraine invested so much in the military that it jumped to eighth place in the ranking of countries according to military spending. It now spends more than half of its budget on defense, while Russia spends about 16 percent on the military, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute writes in its annual analysis.

“So the war burdens Ukraine much more than Russia,” confirmed Xiao Liang, one of the authors of the analysis. The stark numbers emphasize that the fight between Russia and Ukraine is uneven, but Western support helps the Ukrainians compensate.

Ukraine’s military spending in 2023 was 59 percent of Russia’s. But during the year, Ukraine received at least $35 billion in military aid, $25.4 billion of which came from the US. This aid and Ukraine’s own military spending combined accounted for approximately 91 percent of Russian spending.

Recent disagreements over additional aid, which nearly paralyzed the US Congress for several months, show that it will become increasingly difficult for Ukraine to obtain additional funding in the future.

“The process stopped for half a year and we had losses in the east in several directions. It was very difficult and we lost the initiative there,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday after Congress approved the aid package. “Now we have a great chance to stabilize the situation and take the initiative,” he added.

Change in Europe

The Russian invasion, however, fundamentally changed the view of armaments in Europe as well. “The last two years of the war in Ukraine have fundamentally changed the security perspectives of European NATO states,” explained Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher at the Stockholm Institute.

“This shift in threat perception is reflected in the increasing share of GDP going to military spending, with NATO’s two percent target increasingly seen as a stepping stone rather than a threshold to be reached,” he added.

Last year, 11 of NATO’s 31 members met the goal, which is the most since the end of the Cold War. In addition, Finland joined the North Atlantic Alliance last year and Sweden this year. Thus, its defense spending continues to rise. “Compared to last year’s development, all but three NATO countries increased their spending,” Liang said. The biggest European leapfrog is Poland, which increased its spending on armaments by 75 percent last year.

But for the first time since 2009, armaments have risen on all continents. Last fall, after years of uneasy truce, conflict in the Middle East flared up again when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel in October, which launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip in retaliation.

“The large increase in military spending in the Middle East in 2023 reflects the rapidly changing situation in the region – from the warming of diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries in recent years to the outbreak of a major war in Gaza and fears of conflict throughout the region,” said Diego Lopes da Silva, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Asia’s military powerhouse

Tensions continue to rise in Asia as well. China, which spends the most on the military after the United States, increased spending by another six percent last year. China now accounts for half of total military spending in the Asia-Oceania region.

But several neighboring countries have also started increasing their own military spending, precisely because of concerns about China. “China is directing a large part of its growing military budget to increase the combat readiness of the People’s Liberation Army,” Xiao Liang said.

“This has prompted the governments of Japan, Taiwan and other countries to significantly strengthen their military capabilities, and this trend will continue to accelerate in the coming years. Japan will spend $50.2 billion on its military in 2023, an 11 percent increase than in 2022. Taiwan’s military spending also increased,” he said.

The world is moving away from peace

Overall, world military spending has risen for the ninth year in a row to a historically high value of $2.4 trillion (almost 60 trillion crowns). For comparison, the total annual expenditure of the Czech state amounts to more than two trillion crowns.

“The unprecedented increase in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration of peace and security,” explained Nan Tian, ​​a senior researcher at the institute. “States prioritize military power, but risk falling into an action-reaction spiral in an increasingly unstable geopolitical and security environment,” he said.