Weapons imports to Europe nearly doubled over the past five years, partly due to the war in Ukraine, while exports from Russia halved, researchers said on Monday. Ukraine has become the world’s fourth largest arms importer, while France has replaced Russia as the world’s second largest exporter behind the United States.

According to the latest findings of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri,) France’s arms exports increased by 47 percent between 2014 –18 and 2019 –23 and for the first time it was the second biggest arms exporter, just ahead of Russia.