Report: Ukraine became world's third biggest arms importer in 2022

European arms transfers have risen sharply in the last year due to Russia's war on Ukraine, with Ukraine becoming the world's third largest arms importer in 2022, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday.

"Even as arms transfers have declined globally, those to Europe have risen sharply due to the tensions between Russia and most other European states," said Pieter D Wezeman, senior researcher of SIPRI's Arms Transfers Programme. "Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, European states want to import more arms, faster."

Imports of heavy weapons from abroad were very low between Ukrainian independence in 1991 and 2021. Now, Ukraine receives huge amounts of arms from the United States and Europe, only lagging behind arms giants Qatar and India.

Meanwhile, Russia's arms exports, which are usually among the highest "fell by 31% between 2013–17 and 2018–22."

Wezeman says exports are likely to continue falling as Russia will keep arms for its own forces and sanctions will deter countries from cooperating with Russia on arms. Russian exports to China and Egypt however, increased.

The gap between the U.S. and Russia as the two largest global arms exporters thus widened significantly, according to SIPRI.

France's exports also increased sharply, with India receiving 30% of them.

"Strategic competition also continues elsewhere: Arms imports to East Asia have increased and those to the Middle East remain at a high level," added Wezeman.

SIPRI does not usually do year-on-year comparisons of arms exports, but this year was an exception due to the Ukraine war.

The most significant trends in SPRI's report, other than Ukraine's extraordinary rise in arms imports, are European states' increasing mobilization against Russia.