Military spending in Europe in 2022 recorded an unprecedented rapid increase, as it reached, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, levels not seen on the continent since the Cold War, according to researchers in the field of global security.

A study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute stated that the increase in European spending on armies contributed to global military spending setting a record for the eighth time in a row, reaching $2.24 trillion, or 2.2 percent of global GDP.

Europe boosted its spending on its armies in 2022 by 13 percent more compared to the previous 12 months, in a year overshadowed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This increase is the largest in more than 30 years, and at constant dollar prices it represents a return to the level of spending in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The study indicated that Ukraine alone has doubled its spending seven times to reach $44 billion, or a third of its gross domestic product, benefiting from billions of dollars in arms donations.

At the same time, estimates showed that Russian spending on arms increased by 9.2 percent last year.

Military spending in Europe, which totaled $480 billion in 2022, had actually increased by about a third over the past decade, and is expected to accelerate further during the next decade.

Global military spending has also been on the rise since the first decade of the twenty-first century, after a sharp decline in the 1990s.

This upward trend came initially as a result of the huge Chinese investments in its military forces, and the subsequent developments following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The spending of the United States on its military force reached 39 percent of global spending, and China ranked second with 13 percent, and together they constitute more than half of global military spending.

As for the countries that follow them and lag far behind them in this field, they are Russia with 3.9 percent, India with 3.6 percent and Saudi Arabia with 3.3 percent.

Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia follow the same trend.

Britain is the largest spender on arms in Europe, as it ranks sixth with 3.1 percent of global military spending, ahead of Germany, which recorded 2.5 percent, and France, which recorded 2.4 percent. These figures include donations to Ukraine.
European countries such as Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden have boosted their military investments over the past decade.

What also explains the high military spending is the high cost of technologically advanced weapons, as in the case of Finland, which last year bought 64 American F-35 fighter jets.