Part II: Why End A War That Has Led To Record Profits?
In the first part of this two-part expose, we discussed how the oligarchs in Ukraine are getting rich off endless war. Let’s take a look now at the profits that defense contractors and investors in the United States and Western Europe are making from the conflict in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been regular announcements of huge tranches of military aid to Ukraine. These are usually described as amounts of money sent to Kyiv. That’s not actually how this works at all.
Typically, since the lion’s share of this aid is coming from the United States, the actual arms and equipment come from American stockpiles and are then shipped to Ukraine. The money allotted goes to a defense contractor, which is then paid to produce new items that go into American stockpiles. The Ukrainians don’t get the money. Defense contractors right here in the United States do.
Most of the top defense contractors in the world are American. They include Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, Boeing and General Dynamics.
In fact, roughly a third of the top 100 defense companies in the world are American. The remainder are overwhelmingly based in Western Europe. They include companies like BAE, which is actually owned by a consortium of American hedge funds.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, profits for these huge corporations have gone through the roof. Global military spending jumped 9% to a record $2.7 trillion in 2024. The world’s top 100 defense companies earned a record $679 billion in 2024, the highest level ever recorded since tracking began in 2002. The top five companies earned $214 billion, roughly one-third of that earned by the top 100 arms companies.
Between 2020 and 2024, Ukraine became the world’s largest arms importer.
“The protracted conflict in Ukraine has served as a significant growth catalyst for U.S. defense contractors. Renowned U.S. defense stocks like Lockheed Martin LMT, RTX Corp. RTX, General Dynamics GD and Boeing (BA have witnessed massive revenue streams fueled by Washington’s commitment, approximately $127 billion in total appropriations from the U.S. Department of War, as of June 2025, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (as per the Ukraine Oversight report of the U.S. government).”
Nasdaq.com
As the conflict has dragged on, defense contractors have continued to hike the prices they charge for key weapons systems. Raytheon, for example, has increased prices for its Stinger missiles sevenfold since 1991. It now costs the United States taxpayer more than $400,000 to replace each missile sent to Ukraine. Not surprisingly, stocks of American arms manufacturers have surged in the course of the conflict.
Since Russia’s invasion, the S&P Aerospace & Defence index has surged nearly 90 per cent, far outpacing the broader market’s gains. New defense-focused investment funds have mushroomed. There were only four such funds in 2022. There are now 27. Collectively, they manage assets exceeding $35 billion.
Wars have always boosted defense contractors, but the Ukraine war has done so in an unprecedented way. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global defense spending increased by 9.4 percent to $2.72 trillion in 2024, marking the steepest annual rise since the end of the Cold War. This increase was driven largely by the war in Ukraine
The picture gets even more disturbing when you take a look at who actually owns the top defense contractors. It turns out that all of them are owned principally by a handful of top U.S. capital investment firms:
Vanguard Group, Inc.
BlackRock, Inc.
State Street Corporation
Capital Research Global Investors
BlackRock’s net income for the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, was $6.096 billion.
Vanguard is a private firm and does not disclose profits publicly. Its total assets under management have increased more than tenfold in the roughly two decades since 2005. As of April 2025, they were worth $10.1 trillion. As vast as this sum is, it is still over two trillion U.S. dollars less than those held by BlackRock.
State Street’s annual revenue for 2025 is estimated at $13.86 billion.
Capital Research Global Investors is a private investment firm, so, like Vanguard, it does not disclose specific profit data. Its parent company, Capital Group, has total assets under management of $2.2 trillion.
By this point, I think you get the picture. A handful of corporate entities and the men and women who control them are getting unimaginably wealthy off of prolonging the Ukraine war. At the front, poor Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, who largely had no choice but to serve, are fighting and dying, and suffering. Entire cities have been turned to rubble. People’s lives have been shattered and will never be repaired.
None of that makes any difference to the people who are wallowing in cash, buying new yachts, and hoping the dying continues. Why end a war that has led to record profits? T hey hope it goes on forever.
I'd be curious to see the political donations of Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street, etc. since the beginning of the war until now. I do remember the Democrat congressional representatives celebrating when Congress approved more military aid to Ukraine in April, 2024. It surprised me since the Dems always claimed to be the party of peace, whereas Republicans were always for a strong national defense.
I have a relative who works for Lockheed, although not in the weapons area. Still, I imagine he benefits from those sales. I often wonder what he thinks about the consequences of this war.