REVEALED: Starmer's pitiful defence boost LAID BARE by five graphs - Russia outspends UK by THREE times

However, critics say this is not nearly enough to counter the Russian menace currently slowly advancing across Ukraine.

Analysis by Facts4EU and GB News has revealed Russian dictator Putin spends an enormous 7.1 per cent of GDP on defence compared to Britain’s 2.3 per cent.

Russian vs UK defence spending

Further, the Russian figure stood at 4 per cent at the start of the invasion, meaning in three years Putin has almost doubled his nation’s defence spending, making Starmer’s 0.2 per cent rise look puny.

It means Russia’s share of GDP spent on defence since just before the war has increased by almost three-quarters (73.2 per cent) compared to the UK’s rise of 4.5 per cent.

Comparing the two, Russia’s defence spend as a proportion of GDP has grown 16 times faster than that of the UK.

Rate of defence spend increase, Russia vs UK

Translating these percentages into monetary figures also makes for poor reading for Britain.

Russia now spends $145billion a year on defence (up 89.5 per cent since the start of their invasion) compared to Britain’s $74billion (up 22.2 per cent).

Defence spending in billions, UK vs Russia

Even with these stark comparisons, the UK is a leader in defence spending compared to European countries who have languished under the American safety blanket for decades, something Trump is bringing to a rapid conclusion.

The majority of NATO countries do not hit their target defence spend of 2 per cent of GDP.

This includes big countries like France (1.96 per cent), Germany (1.64 per cent), Italy (1.5 per cent) and Spain (1.19 per cent).

NATO members defence spend as a % of GDP

Only Poland (3.26 per cent), Estonia (3.04 per cent), Latvia (2.87 per cent), Greece (2.8 per cent) and Lithuania (2.78 per cent) outspend the UK in terms of GDP share on defence.

Unsurprisingly, with the exception of Greece, all those countries fall within eastern Europe and could become Putin’s next target for an invasion.

The secondary NATO target which is rarely mentioned is that a minimum of 20 per cent of defence spending should be capital expenditure, ie. military hardware.

This is of course vital, as there is little point having personnel, headquarters, training, etc, for an army, navy, and air force, if they have no guns, ships, or planes with which to go into combat.

Again, European countries lag behind the UK, with countries like Spain (16 per cent), Germany (18 per cent) and Italy (19 per cent), well behind the UK’s 25 per cent.

NATO members' defence capital expenditure

All of these numbers are of course dwarfed by the US whose $850 billion (£662 billion) defence budget (3.5 per cent of GDP) leads the world.

The USA makes up for 37 per cent of the world’s defence expenditure.

China came in second place spending $296 billion, followed by China, Russia, India and then the United Kingdom.

Ten highest spending countries on defence ($billions)

In terms of defence as a percentage of GDP spend, Ukraine leads the way by some distance and some smaller countries also feature on the list.

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Ten highest spending countries on defence (% of GDP)

It comes Keir Starmer and his European counterparts rally in support of Ukraine, including an 800-billion-euro support package announced by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen yesterday.

But no matter what Europe manages, Zelensky may be forced to accept a peace deal as Trump threatens to halt aid to the war-torn nation.

The US leader has expressed a renewed possibility of signing minerals deal which would see thousands of US workers exploit rare earth in Ukraine if the war was stopped.