US President Joe Biden during his "surprise" visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv on February 20 announced a new package of additional US weapons supplies worth $500m (£415m). UK, Germany and other western countries are also supplying weapons to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the buzz lately is that China is likely to supply weapons to Russia.

Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, like other wars, has claimed innocent lives, scripted tragic tales of refugee exodus, fuelled skyrocketing inflation and food and energy scarcity. But it has indeed proven fairly lucrative for American, European and sundry weapon merchants worldwide. 

The US has reportedly delivered weapons worth 20 billion dollars to Kyiv to tackle the Russian onslaught. While the current deliveries may be from the military's inventory, future replenishments are a fillip to arms companies to boost production. More weapons deployment in the Russia-Ukraine war means more military expenditure.

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The economics of such a conflict stretching for years is often baffling and we rarely focus on that aspect.

Studies reveal that Pentagon alone spent eight trillion dollars in the two-decade-long war against terror in Afghanistan. Through it, defense contractors, weapons suppliers for troops, and lobbyists benefitted. A 'Cost of War' project by Brown University estimated that weapons manufacturers spent as much as 2.5 billion dollars only on lobbying firms during the 20-year-long imbroglio.   

Similarly, the Ukraine quagmire or the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has benefitted top-notch arms dealers. Both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, acclaimed armament giants, have told their investors that the Ukraine conflict was good for business.

More Western battle tanks rolling into Ukraine is no guarantee that Vladimir Putin will end the war.

According to data released by the Kiel Institute for World Economy, the US has committed military aid worth $44.5 billion to Ukraine. This is the other side of the gruesome conflict.    

Lockheed Martin doing brisk business at the time of the Ukrainian conflict has seen its stock shoot up by 31 per cent in one year, more than many consumer companies. Despite profit booking, scrips of British arms major BAE Systems ballooned 53 per cent in the last year while those of French aircraft giant Dassault went up by 48 per cent. 

In the denouement, the world's arms barons may continue to exploit the human zest for devastating opponents to enrich themselves.

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Former US President Eisenhower had warned that the huge military-industrial defence machinery with its insatiable appetite for profit could not only lead to unending war. Eisenhower's caveats were nearly accurate and the same doctrine applied to Russia also. During the Cold War, superpower rivalry boosted arms sales.

The cycle continues.

The number of casualties in a full-scale conflict or a skirmish or any military adventurism is immaterial. In the boardroom of a global armament major what is more important is how many Javelin anti-tank missiles were delivered at a whopping price to Ukraine to thwart advancing Russian formations.    

(Chiranjib Haldar is a commentator on politics and society).