Russia has accused Ukraine of targeting Moscow in a drone attack after one smashed into a building causing a “powerful explosion”.
It hit the Expo Center complex in central Moscow, which hosts conventions and conferences, in the early hours of Friday.
Meanwhile, Economist reports how in the decades after the end of the cold war Western defence budgets dwindled, procurement decisions were put on ice and the industry scaled back its production. The war in Ukraine has jolted it back into action. “Defence budgets move with the geopolitical threat,” says George Zhao of Bernstein, a broker. That threat is now all too clear to governments, leading to a deluge of demand for arms. Nowhere is that more true than in Europe.
Last year military budgets worldwide rose by 3.7%, to $2.2trn. In Europe they increased by 13%, faster than in any other region. Growth was particularly pronounced in countries nearest to Russia. Finland’s military budget rose by 36%, Lithuania’s by 27%, Sweden’s by 12% and Poland’s by 11%. Germany, the continent’s largest economy, is at last reversing its decades-long miserliness over military spending. In February last year the government pledged to increase the country’s defence expenditure from around 1.4% of gdp to 2% and announced a €100bn ($110bn) “special fund” for the armed forces.
