Ukraine's military expenditures reach 44B USD in 2022

Ukraine's military expenditures increased by 640 percent in 2022 to about 44 billion U.S. dollars, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Monday, citing a report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The spending spike, mainly caused by the Ukraine crisis, was the highest single-year increase in a country's military expenditure ever recorded in SIPRI data, the report said.

Last year, defense spending accounted for 34 percent of Ukraine's gross domestic product compared with 3.2 percent in 2021, it said.

According to SIPRI, in 2022, Ukraine was the world's third-largest arms importer after Qatar and India.