Military aid to Ukraine

The Ukraine war has prompted a highly specific military acquisitions scenario. A great number of sovereign actors has supplied Ukraine with systems which vary to a great degree in terms of numbers, complexity and type. The objective of this chapter is to analyze the patterns in such military procurement. To do so, the chapter starts with a simple framework approaching military procurement as policy and contrasting war-time and peace-time drivers of supply-side and demand-side processes. Within this model, the specific position of contemporary Ukraine is analyzed. Ukraine has inherited a vast military industrial capacity, but has had limited success in securing the necessary funds to make full use of it. In February 2022, Ukraine was forced to rely on military aid to provide the elements it needed to shore up the gaps in its military capacity. The response in terms of donations was rapid and substantial. This chapter divides these acquisitions into yearly stages, using open intelligence sources to provide an overview of this progression. The specific military acquisitions scenario in Ukraine has profound implications. The composition of Armed Forces of Ukraine, its doctrine and the productive capacity of military industrial sector are all bound to be thoroughly influenced and an economy that had substantial military industrial capacity largely inherited from the Soviet era is now undergoing a very specific, if limited, military westernization.