Russia imports five times more prosthetic arms and legs from Germany than before the war

Germany supplied Russia with prosthetic arms and legs, as well as artificial joints, worth 79 million euros in the first half of 2026, almost a third more than a year earlier, according to Eurostat data reviewed by Forbes Russia.

Prosthetic arms and legs and related components accounted for 41.2 million euros of that total, while endoprostheses — artificial hip, knee, and other joint replacements — accounted for 37.8 million euros.

Supplies of prosthetic arms and legs grew 5.4 times compared with 2021, while shipments of endoprostheses grew 6.1 times.

Russia received prostheses and endoprostheses worth a total of 144.9 million euros from European Union countries in the first half of 2026, compared with 66.5 million euros during the same period in 2021.

Russia’s prosthetics market is growing, but domestic production capacity is not keeping pace with demand, Forbes writes. People with disabilities received 152,661 prosthetic arms and legs from the state in 2024, more than in any of the previous 10 years, according to the Labor Ministry.

Market participants say prosthetics are now being issued significantly faster and recipients have become significantly younger. Young people accounted for about 8% of those needing prosthetics before 2022, but their share had grown to 15–20% by 2025, according to Rostec, the Russian state defense conglomerate. Most are people who fought in the war with Ukraine and were wounded there.

Younger patients need more complex, technologically advanced devices, but production of these prostheses in Russia has “historically developed somewhat more slowly,” experts say. As a result, Russian-made products account for about 80% of the prosthetics market by unit but only 30% by value, and imports account for up to 70% of the market for expensive, high-tech components.