Фото: Павел Матусевич, «Ваяр»
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has published its annual report on international arms transfers, assessing trends for the period 2021–2025.
According to SIPRI data, Belarus accounted for 0.9% of global arms imports in 2021–2025. Compared with the previous assessed period of 2016–2020, the country’s share increased by 73%. Almost all weapons imported by Belarus came from Russia, while Iran accounted for 0.1% of imports and China for less than 0.05%. In recent years Belarus has received Russian Su-30SM2 fighter jets, Mi-35M helicopters, BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, surface-to-air missile systems and other equipment.
Belarus was also the third-largest client of Russia, accounting for 6.8% of global Russian arms exports in 2021–2025. According to SIPRI, 48% of Russian exports went to India, 13% to China and 13% to Belarus. Russia’s share in global arms exports declined by 64%. In 2016–2020 Russia accounted for 21% of global arms exports.
Belarus did not rank among the world’s 25 largest arms exporters.
The volume of arms transferred between countries in 2021–2025 increased by 9.7% compared with the previous period of 2016–2020.
SIPRI identifies the growth of arms supplies to Ukraine as the main trend. Ukraine accounted for 9.7% of global arms imports, making it the largest arms recipient. In Ukraine’s arms import structure the United States ranked first with 41%, followed by Germany with 14% and Poland with 9.4%. The report also notes growing demand in Europe.
The United States remains the world’s largest arms exporter, providing 42% of all deliveries. In 2021–2025 the United States supplied weapons to 99 countries. The largest recipients of American arms were Saudi Arabia (12%), Ukraine (9.4%) and Japan (8.9%).
France ranked second among exporters with a 9.8% share. The main recipients of French weapons were India (24%), Egypt (11%) and Greece (10%). Russia ranked third.
The three largest arms importers are Ukraine, India (8.2%) and Saudi Arabia (6.8%).