European countries have doubled their arms imports over the past five years, mainly because of the war in Ukraine, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) announced on Monday, DPA reports.

A report prepared by SIPRI shows that arms imports by European states increased by 94% in the period 2019-2023 compared to the period 2014-2018, writes Agerpres.

The SIPRI data refer to the volume of arms shipments, not their financial value. Because this volume can vary significantly from year to year depending on the ordering situation, SIPRI analyzes five-year periods rather than 12-month periods.

The largest arms importer in Europe was Ukraine, which accounted for 23% of all arms imports of the continent. The Eastern European country has been facing a large-scale Russian invasion for more than two years.

According to the interactive map, Romania also doubled its arms imports between 2019 and 2023 (a 180 percent increase), accounting for 0.6 percent of total global arms imports, News.ro notes.

In 2023, Ukraine was the largest arms importer in the world. However, in the period 2019-2023, the country ranked 4th in the world after India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Russia was overtaken by France

The two most important exporting countries to Ukraine were the USA and Germany, which accounted for 69% and 30% of Ukrainian imports, respectively.

Despite this, over the past five years, German arms exports have fallen by 14%.

For the first time in a decade, Russia is no longer among the world’s top two arms exporters. While the US increased arms exports by 17%, capturing 42% of the global market, arms shipments from Russia fell by 53%.

Russia was overtaken by France, which increased exports by 47%.

The drop in Russian exports has made France the world’s second-largest arms exporter after the United States, for the first time since records began in 1950.

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