Ukraine war triggers new high in global arms budgets

Defence spending in western and central Europe has surpassed that of the last year of the cold war, an annual report has found, as military expenditure across the world hit an all-time high of $2.24tn last year

- Daniel Boffey

The outbreak of war in Ukraine has triggered the steepest increase in military expenditure in Europe in three decades, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The thinktank reports that spending by central and western European states reached $345bn in 2022, a sum that, in real terms, surpasses that of 1989, the last year of the cold war. Their defence expenditure is 30% higher than a decade ago.

Germany was among the nations breaking with the norms of the recent past. The Zeitenwende, or turning point, announced by the country's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, last year ushered in its biggest re-armament since the second world war.