- October 9, 2026
- 8:47 pm
- World News
Ukraine ranked 160th out of 163 in the Global Peace Index for 2026. Israel was one spot higher at 159th. And Russia fell to the last, 163rd place. The figures were published in a study by the Institute for Economics & Peace, which once again attracted the attention of Ukrainian media on October 8. But behind the proximity of Ukraine and Israel lie completely different wars, different causes of threats, and one inconvenient question: can peace be measured by a single number without confusing the aggressor with the one defending against it?
Author: Editorial Staff of NANews
Five countries at the end of the ranking. And five different stories of war
In June 2026, the international Institute for Economics and Peace (Institute for Economics & Peace, IEP) presented the latest Global Peace Index — an annual study of the level of peacefulness of countries. It covers 163 countries and territories and takes into account not only armed conflicts but also public safety, political instability, terrorism, and militarization.
The bottom five look like this:
- Russia — 163rd place, index 3.367.
- Sudan — 162nd place, index 3.195.
- Democratic Republic of the Congo — 161st place, index 3.189.
- Ukraine — 160th place, index 3.184.
- Israel — 159th place, index 3.124.
The higher the numerical indicator, the lower the level of peacefulness according to the study’s methodology.
Sudan is experiencing a civil war that began in April 2023. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, armed clashes continue, accompanied by a humanitarian crisis and mass displacement of the population. Ukraine has been resisting a full-scale Russian invasion for five years. Israel, after a terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, found itself drawn into a prolonged regional confrontation.
Russia is on this list for fundamentally different reasons. It was the Russian leadership that decided on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, continuing the aggression that began in 2014. But the ranking itself does not establish the culprits of wars. For this, there are facts, documents, and international legal assessments.
This is where the first problem arises with loud headlines about the ‘most unpeaceful states.’ They combine in one category countries where wars are happening but say nothing about who started these wars.
Why this list cannot be called a ranking of the most dangerous countries
The Global Peace Index uses 23 indicators grouped into three categories: public safety, domestic and international conflicts, militarization. The calculation includes the number of deaths in conflicts, forced displacement of people, political instability, relations with neighbors, military expenditures, the size of armed forces, and other factors.
For the Israeli reader, it is important to distinguish between two concepts here. The first is bitachon (ביטחון), security provided by the state, army, police, and civil defense system. The second is peace as the absence or limitation of violence and armed conflicts. A strong army can increase a state’s ability to defend itself, but at the same time, a high military burden affects its place in the index.
Therefore, Israel’s 159th place does not mean that every Israeli locality is more dangerous than any other country. Similarly, Ukraine’s 160th place does not describe the situation in Uzhhorod, Kyiv, and the frontline Kherson in the same way.
The index shows the overall picture of the state. It does not replace the map of air raid alerts, recommendations from the Israeli Home Front Command, or information about the safety of a specific city.
Ukraine improved its indicators, but the war has not disappeared
In the new study, there is a detail that is lost behind the message about the fourth place from the end. Ukraine improved its overall score by 3.6% compared to the previous index release — the most noticeable improvement in its region.
According to researchers, the indicators of the ongoing conflict improved by 3.8%, and public safety by 4.9%. At the same time, the situation in the group of militarization indicators practically did not change.
These percentages cannot be translated into the number of lives saved or declared as proof that the war is becoming less destructive. The index combines information from different periods and categories. Improvement in the final score does not cancel out Russian missiles, strike drones, the occupation of Ukrainian territories, and the destruction of energy infrastructure.
For Israeli residents, the difference between statistics and personal experience is clear. The number of rocket alerts may decrease compared to the previous period, but one rocket hitting a residential building will negate the sense of security for hundreds of families.
In Ukraine, this is compounded by the constant war on its own territory. The Russian army holds occupied areas, and Ukrainian cities are subjected to strikes far from the front line. Therefore, even the improvement of several international indicators does not mean the country’s return to peaceful life.
Israel: a strong army does not guarantee a high place in the peace index
Israel ranked 159th, being at the very bottom of the regional ranking of the Middle East and North Africa, above only Sudan. For a country with a high-tech economy, developed medicine, and powerful armed forces, the result may seem unexpected. But the study does not measure the effectiveness of the Israeli state.
It records the consequences of prolonged armed confrontation.
After October 7, 2023, Israeli society experienced mass mobilization of reservists, evacuation of residents of border areas, war against Hamas, shelling from Hezbollah, attacks by Houthis, and direct military confrontation with Iran.
It’s not just about state budget expenditures. A reservist called up for months is simultaneously absent from work, family, and the civilian economy. A closed school or evacuated settlement is also a consequence of war, even if there was no shelling on that day.
Of course, each of these factors has its own weight in international statistics. It cannot be claimed that researchers directly add the cost of closed schools to the number of rockets. But behind the generalized indicators are precisely such changes in public life.
A separate complexity is associated with observation periods. The Global Peace Index 2026 is not a daily monitor and does not fully cover the events of autumn 2026. Comparing its positions with the news of October without considering this delay would be incorrect.
From Kyiv to Tel Aviv: why similar numbers hide different wars
Ukraine and Israel indeed face rocket attacks, drones, threats to the civilian population, and the need to constantly maintain armed forces in combat readiness. But the similarity does not end there and does not turn two wars into one.
Russia is conducting a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, seeking to hold captured territories and impose its conditions on Kyiv. The Ukrainian economy has lost enterprises, lands, logistics routes, and millions of workers forced to leave their homes.
Israel confronts armed organizations and state threats on several fronts. Its opponents, geography of hostilities, military capabilities, and the situation of the civilian population differ from those of Ukraine.
It is especially dangerous to mechanically compare the resilience of the two societies. Israel maintains a significant part of its own production and technological infrastructure despite military costs. Ukraine is fighting under conditions of occupation of part of its territory and constant destruction of facilities necessary for the economy to function.
The new index confirms the need for careful comparison: close positions in the international table do not yet mean identical circumstances.
For NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency this is primarily a matter of accuracy. When Ukrainian and Israeli stories are placed side by side in one statistic, it is important not to erase the differences between them for the sake of a striking headline.
Russia is last. But the index is not a verdict for aggression
Russia took the last place in the Global Peace Index, even behind Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in terms of overall peacefulness.
Its position is related to the scale of the armed conflict, militarization, and other indicators considered by international researchers. This is not a legal qualification of the actions of the Russian leadership and not a separate sanction assessment.
However, responsibility for the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine is not determined by the ranking. The International Court of Justice in March 2022 ordered Russia to suspend military operations, and the UN General Assembly demanded the cessation of the invasion and the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Therefore, the proximity of Ukraine and Russia at the bottom of the index should not turn into a statement of their equal responsibility. One country was invaded, the other carried it out.
There is also an Israeli aspect here. Russia developed military-technical cooperation with Iran, receiving Iranian drones for strikes on Ukraine, and then expanding its own production of similar systems. Iran simultaneously remains one of the main sources of security threats to Israel.
This does not make the Russian-Ukrainian war and Middle Eastern conflicts a single military front. But it shows why what is happening in Eastern Europe cannot be viewed in complete isolation from the Middle East.
The world has been losing stability for the twelfth consecutive year
Perhaps the most alarming part of the Global Peace Index 2026 lies beyond the ranking of individual countries.
According to researchers, the overall global peacefulness indicator worsened by 0.7% over the year. This is the twelfth consecutive annual decline. In 99 countries, the situation worsened, while in 62 countries it improved.
There were 61 active conflicts involving states in the world — a record level since World War II. The number of internationalized internal conflicts, where other states are directly or indirectly involved in an internal war, has increased by 175% since 2010.
Behind these data lies a change in the nature of war itself. Conflict increasingly rarely remains within state borders. Through international arms supplies, participation of foreign armed formations, migration, trade, and political alliances, the consequences of hostilities spread significantly beyond the front.
Researchers paid special attention to drones and artificial intelligence. Drones have made precision strikes more accessible, and automated systems accelerate the detection and targeting of objectives. International control mechanisms are developing more slowly than the technologies themselves.
Ukraine and Israel know this problem not from theoretical reports. In both countries, drones have become part of daily military reality, and technologies to counter them are one of the most important areas of defense.
But the spread of accessible weaponry also affects states that are not currently at war. The easier it is to transfer means of destruction across borders, the harder it is to maintain the previous system of regional security.
The cost of violence — 21.8 trillion dollars
The economic consequences of violence in the world for 2025 were estimated by the report’s authors at 21.8 trillion dollars — 3.2% more than the previous year. This is not the sum of direct damage from destroyed buildings. The calculation includes military expenditures, internal security provision, and other direct and indirect costs of violence.
Military expenditures account for 43.3% of this estimate, and internal security for another 29.1%. Together, these categories form almost three-quarters of the economic burden.
Here arises a paradox well known to both Israel and Ukraine. Money directed towards defense can save lives and ensure the existence of the state. But these same resources can no longer be simultaneously invested in building hospitals, developing transport, or education.
For Israel, this choice is complicated by long reservist gatherings and the need to finance air defense. For Ukraine — by the need to simultaneously maintain the army, restore energy, and support basic state services.
The international index does not answer what volume of defense spending is justified. It records how costly the lack of sustainable security is for the world.
Peaceful neighbors of Ukraine and the turbulent region of Israel
The geography of the ranking gives another reason to think.
Ukraine is located next to countries occupying significantly higher places: Hungary — 15th, Poland — 22nd, Slovakia — 29th, Romania — 45th, Moldova — 55th. Ukraine’s military situation stands out sharply against their background, although the consequences of the Russian invasion are felt throughout Eastern Europe.
Israel has a different regional picture. Jordan is in 68th place, Egypt — 113th, Lebanon — 131st, Iran — 144th, Syria — 155th. The Middle East and North Africa as a whole remain regions with the lowest level of peacefulness.
At the same time, the position of neighbors cannot be explained solely by geography. A state can border a conflict zone while maintaining more favorable indicators due to the absence of large-scale hostilities on its own territory.
Israel, however, is directly involved in armed confrontation. Ukraine has become the territory of one of the largest wars in modern Europe.
Both situations require their own story and explanation.
What will happen next — and what the index cannot predict
There is a temptation to look at these numbers as a forecast: if Ukraine improved its score, then peace is approaching; if Israel remains at the end of the list, then new wars are ahead. The study does not allow such a conclusion.
The Global Peace Index describes already accumulated security conditions. It does not name the date of the ceasefire, does not predict decisions of the Kremlin or Tehran, and does not determine the likelihood of the next military operation.
Different scenarios are possible. The cessation of hostilities may gradually improve indicators, but destroyed infrastructure, population displacement, political instability, and militarization will continue to affect the position of countries for a long time. And a new escalation can change the picture in the opposite direction.
That is why the place in the ranking should be perceived not as a final diagnosis, but as one of the tools for observing international security.
Not everyone who ended up at the end of the list is equally responsible for the war
On October 8, Ukrainian media once again drew attention to Ukraine’s position in the Global Peace Index 2026. The report itself was published back in June, and its figures do not fully reflect the events of recent months.
But over the past time, the main question posed by this ranking has not disappeared.
How to assess peace in a state forced to defend itself? How indicative is the level of militarization if reducing the army will make citizens even more vulnerable? And can one statistical scale describe the position of a country that was invaded and a country that initiated the invasion?
For Ukraine and Israel, such questions are not abstract. They concern the safety of families, the ability of the economy to survive the war, and the right of people to plan life beyond the next air raid alert.
The ranking records the consequences of war but does not explain their moral and political nature. This work should be done by journalists, researchers, and societies themselves.
And the main conclusion of the study goes far beyond the two countries: the world is spending more and more on protection from violence, but it is not becoming more peaceful yet.