The war in Ukraine Military spending in Europe shoots up, which in 2022 stood at figures not seen since the Cold War. This is reflected in a report released this Monday by the Stockholm International Institute for Peace Research (SIPRI), which states that the European continent was the most increased the purchase of weapons, with a year-on-year rise of 13%.

A conflict that, together with the increase in tensions in East Asia, contributed to the fact that world spending was at a record high of 2.2 trillion dollars (two trillion euros), 3.7% more year-on-year in real terms -double not counting inflation- and the equivalent of 2.2% of global GDP.

The aforementioned report highlights that in central and western Europe they spent 345,000 million dollars (315,000 million euros), 30% more than in 2013 and a figure that exceeds for the first time that of 1989coinciding with the end of the Cold War.

The countries that spend the most on weapons

Finland (with 36% more), Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%) and Poland (11%) are the countries that increased their military budget the most and the plans launched by several countries suggest that spending in the area will continue to grow in the future, according to SIPRI.

“While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 certainly affected spending decisions in 2022, concerns about Russian aggression have been building long before that. Many former Eastern Bloc countries have doubled their military spending since 2014,” says the institute.

Russiathe third country on the world list, raised its military investment by 9.2% to nearly 86,400 million (78,860 million euros), 4.1% of its GDP, while Ukraine experienced a record 640% increase34% of its GDP, without counting the donations received from other countries.

Despite the increases registered in Europe and other areas, USA It maintains its indisputable dominance worldwide: last year it invested 877,000 million dollars (880,469 million euros), 39% of the total and three times more than China, the second country on the list. A figure that represents an increase of 0.7% compared to 2021 and which, however, would be “much higher” if the North American country had not registered the highest inflation since 1981, and which has been driven by the level “without precedents” for military aid to Ukraine.

The 19.9 billion allocated last year by Washington to Kyiv represent the largest amount in military aid to a country since the Cold Warexplains SIPRI, but they represent only 2.3% of total US military spending.

India, with 6% more military spending, and Saudi Arabia, with 16%, complete the top five positions in annual spending, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, South Korea and Japan, with Ukraine in eleventh, position, 25 places higher than in 2021. SpainFor its part, it drops one place in this index to 16, with spending of 20,300 million (18,500 million euros), 7.3% more than in 2021, just ahead of Brazil.