MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/. The Western defense industry benefits from arms supplies to Ukraine, meaning they could expand in 2023, two analysts told TASS on Monday.
Andrey Kortunov, director general at the Russian International Affairs Council think tank, said the US defense industry is one of the main beneficiaries as it has used the situation in Ukraine to expand its foothold in European defense markets.
"We are now seeing from the latest budget decisions that spending on new weapons is increasing and the shares of most Western defense companies are sharply going up," he said, when asked about future Western arms supplies to Ukraine.
The analyst said other beneficiaries are the UK, French and German defense industries, which also provide weapons to Kiev.
"Other players are emerging in this market, and they quickly solidify their positions, for example, South Korea. Seoul wasn’t previously ever referred to as an arms exporter, but now it’s starting to supply weapons even to Europe," Kortunov said. "A serious market shakeup will now be taking place to reflect the geopolitical situation."
Ramping up supplies
Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at Higher School of Economics, said Western countries will probably bump up their spending on military aid to Ukraine in 2023 because Kiev has used up most of its Soviet-era arms inventory.
"These are major expenses, but they are comparable to what the US spent for a long time on Iraq and Afghanistan, on waging the wars," the analyst said. "In principle, they can’t do this indefinitely, but long enough, so that the assistance will go on. The US defense industry is operating at the top of its production capacity."
Kashin said the US and the rest of the West provide military assistance to Ukraine also to defeat Russia.
"The defense industry per se benefits from the contracts, but it doesn’t get the broader economy anywhere," the analyst said. "It all requires a strenuous effort just to defeat Russia and nothing else."
Western spending
In response to Russia’s special military operation, Western countries have stepped up supplies of arms and military equipment to Kiev by billions of dollars. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 22 that the US had spent $45 billion on military assistance to Ukraine while the EU spent $28 billion.
On December 21, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, at the invitation of US President Joe Biden, spent several hours in Washington, met with the US president, the leadership of Congress and made a speech there. During his visit, the US announced a new assistance package worth $1.85 bln. It for the first time included the Patriot air defense system.
On January 5, Biden spoke by phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the countries then announced the US will provide Ukraine with Bradley fighting vehicles and Germany will send Marder vehicles.