Ukraine and Poland boosted military spending in 2018 by 21% and 8.9% respectively, while Russia cut it by 3.5%, according to a fact sheet on military expenditure in the world published on April 29 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

According to the report, several countries in Central and Eastern Europe made large increases in their military expenditure in 2018. Spending by Poland rose by 8.9% in 2018 to $11.6 billion, while Ukraine's spending was up by 21% to $4.8 billion.

At $61.4 billion, Russian military spending was the sixth highest in the world in 2018. Its spending decreased by 3.5% compared with 2017.

In general, military spending in Eastern Europe decreased.

"The increases in Central and Eastern Europe are largely due to growing perceptions of a threat from Russia. This is despite the fact that Russian military spending has fallen for the past two years," Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI's Arms and Military Expenditure Programme (AMEX), said.

Total world military expenditure in 2018 rose to $1.82 trillion, which a marginal increase of 2.6% in real terms from 2017.