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MILITARY

Sweden faces increased risk of Russian retaliation: Swedish Armed Forces

Sweden's support for Ukraine and participation in the coordinated international response to Russia's invasion has increased the risk of retaliation, the Swedish Armed Forces said in the first of its new weekly press conferences.

Michael Claesson, operative chief of the Swedish Armed Forces led the press conference on Thursday.
Michael Claesson, operative chief of the Swedish Armed Forces led the press conference on Thursday. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

“There is a range of possible Russian retaliatory actions which could be aimed at Sweden,” Lieutenant General Michael Claesson, the Swedish Armed Forces’ chief of operations, said. “[Some of the things] in the Russian toolbox include influence operations, discrediting important individuals, cyber-attacks, sabotage, and more.”

Claesson was speaking at the first of the Swedish Armed Forces’ new weekly press conferences on the security situation, which will be broadcast directly at 3pm every Thursday for so long as the Russian invasion is destabilising the region. 

The press conferences will serve a similar function to the daily and then weekly press conferences that the Swedish Public Health Agency used to keep the population updated during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Claesson said that the unexpectedly united response from the EU and from Nato had led to a heightened tone in Russian rhetoric and an increased risk of concrete retaliatory actions.

But he also said that the judgement of the Swedish Armed Forces was that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not going to plan. “The Russian weaknesses and Ukrainian resistance provide hope,”  he said.

While the invasion had brought some new things to light, such as Russia’s effective control of Belarus and its perhaps closer than expected links to China, he said that the Armed Forces did not currently see any unexpected military activity in the immediate vicinity of Sweden. 

Jan Kinnander, head of the Security Office at Sweden’s Military Intelligence Service (Must), said that the intelligence threat against Sweden remained unchanged at the level it has been at since 2016, the fourth-highest level on a five-level scale.

“This isn’t something we have increased now, rather we have seen that this threat has existed for a long time. We increased the level of threat in 2016, and we can see that it is still at that high level,” he said.

“When we discuss the collection of intelligence, we mean technical intelligence such as signal-tracing or cyber operations with the aim of securing information, and we mean a person-based collection of information, which essentially refers to making contact with individuals and trying to gain information.”

He said that he believed that the recent outage on the Civil Contingencies Agency may have been the rest DDOoS attack from a foreign power, although he said it may also have simply been a technical fault. 

Member comments

  1. Level of alert boosted as from……2016 !!!!
    Did anyone listen in Europe ?
    Nope…….even when a country decides to reinstate conscription……and now what ??
    A bit tardy !!

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SWEDEN AND UKRAINE

Zelensky arrives in Stockholm for Ukraine-Nordic summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Stockholm to meet leaders from Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

Zelensky arrives in Stockholm for Ukraine-Nordic summit

Zelensky has been touring European capitals in recent days to appeal for more military aid for the Ukrainian army, which has been ceding ground to relentless Russian attacks in recent weeks.

“Today I am in Stockholm for the third Ukraine-Northern Europe summit,” Zelensky said in a statement on social media.

“Our top priorities are to ensure more air defence systems for Ukraine, joint defence industry projects, and weapons for our warriors, as well as global efforts to force Russia to make peace,” he added.

He said he would meet leaders from Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway and sign several bilateral security agreements.

“Ukraine will grow stronger as a result of the support of our principled and consistent allies, as well as new security agreements,” the Ukrainian leader said.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson meanwhile said that his country would take “important steps towards further strengthening cooperation between our countries in our support for Ukraine”.

“Ukraine’s cause is our cause,” he added in a statement on social media.

Zelensky’s arrival in Stockholm comes just days after Sweden pledged military aid of 13.3 billion kronor ($1.25 billion) to Ukraine.

And it comes as Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold back Russian attacks across the sprawling front line, after Moscow this month launched a fresh ground offensive in the eastern Kharkiv region.

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