Ukraine’s defense spending rose by 20% to $84 billion, - SIPRI
In 2025, Ukraine’s military spending rose to $84.1 billion, ranking it seventh in the world and first in terms of percentage of GDP, according to SIPRI.
As reported by Censor.NET, this is evidenced by calculations from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
They rose by 20% or 40% of GDP. In terms of the ratio of military spending to GDP, Ukraine has ranked first for the fourth consecutive year. Between 2016 and 2025, they increased by 1,501%.
In 2025, the military spending of Russia, with which Ukraine is at war, reached approximately $190 billion, an increase of 5.9% year-over-year. This represents approximately 7.5% of Russia’s GDP.
The share of military spending in its total government expenditures reached 20%—the highest figure SIPRI has ever recorded for Russia. For Ukraine, this figure stands at 63%.
| Top 10 countries by military spending in 2025 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| № | Country | $ billion | % of GDP |
| 1 | The U.S. | 954 | 3.1% |
| 2 | China | 336 | 1.7% |
| 3 | Russia | 190 | 7.5% |
| 4 | Germany | 114 | 2.3% |
| 5 | India | 92.1 | 2.3% |
| 6 | The Great Britain | 89.0 | 2.4% |
| 7 | Ukraine | 84.1 | 40% |
| 8 | Saudi Arabia | 83.2 | 6.5% |
| 9 | France | 68.0 | 2.0% |
| 10 | Japan | 62.2 | 1.4% |
Aid in 2025
Despite the absence of new aid commitments from the United States, Ukraine received $52.2 billion from international partners in 2025 to support the state budget—the largest amount since the start of the war. This figure is 11% higher than in 2024. Of this amount, $37.9 billion consisted of loans under the G7’s Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) program—the largest source of foreign aid to Ukraine in 2025. Since the loans are planned to be repaid using interest received from frozen Russian assets, Ukraine will not have to service this debt at its own expense.
Overall, global military spending reached a historic high of $2.887 trillion in 2025. The upward trend is likely to continue in 2026.
The main driver of growth was Europe (+14%), where military spending reached the highest level recorded by SIPRI in its history of observations, due to the Russia-Ukraine war and NATO countries’ rearmament efforts.
