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MILITARY

Swedes spooked as government, military say to prepare for war

Realism or fear-mongering? Calls from Sweden's government and military urging Swedes to be ready for war has triggered panicked buying, frightened children and a fierce debate in the Nordic country.

A Ukrainian serviceman stands atop his Sweden-made CV90 combat vehicle in the Donetsk region
A Ukrainian serviceman stands atop his Sweden-made CV90 combat vehicle in the Donetsk region in November 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Calls from Sweden's government and military urging Swedes to be ready for war at home has spooked many. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

While Sweden has contributed troops to international peacekeeping missions, the country has not been directly involved in an armed conflict since the Napoleonic era.

The realities of war are therefore foreign to most Swedes.

“There could be war in Sweden,” Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin told an annual defence conference on Sunday, warning Swedes against complacency.

Days later, the sentiment was echoed by the commander of Sweden’s armed forces Micael Byden, who showed pictures of burnt out and bombed houses from Ukraine.

“Do you believe that this could be Sweden?,” Byden asked the audience, later explaining that the question was not a rhetorical one.

READ ALSO: Swedish defence analyst: ‘We should be worried about war in Sweden’

“Russia’s war against Ukraine is a step, not an end goal, for the ambition to establish spheres of influence and tear down the rule-based world order,” he added.

Ending two centuries of neutrality and military non-alignment, Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though its bid is currently held up by Turkey and Hungary.

In early December, Stockholm and Washington signed a pact paving the way for US forces to operate in Sweden.

Byden then went on to say that Swedes needed to “mentally prepare for war.”

Anxious children

The statements were widely spread by news outlets and social media.

Subsequently, children’s rights group Bris said it had seen a noticeable uptick in calls to its support hotline from children worried about the prospect of an impending war.

“Many children already have a level of anxiety that was made worse by this news,” Magnus Jagerskog, general secretary at Bris, said in a statement, adding that the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and more recently Gaza had already frightened children.

Store chains have also reported a sharp increase in purchases of items associated with crises, such as emergency radios, jerry cans and camping stoves, resulting in empty shelves in several shops.

The comments have also sparked a debate in Sweden about how plausible a full-scale conflict on Swedish soil is, or whether the warnings amounted to fear-mongering.

“This is a serious situation but it’s also important to be clear that it’s not like war is at the door,” Social Democrat leader and former prime minister Magdalena Andersson told broadcaster TV4.

In an op-ed in the country’s newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter, left-wing commentator Goran Greider said he believed the commander’s comments revealed “a secret longing to finally test the Swedish fighting forces.”

He also said the real message was more likely: “Give us more money.”

The same paper’s editorial board meanwhile said in a leader some of the critical reactions to the call were “absurd”, and that instead arguing that war was an impossibility was “nonsense”.

In Russia, Sweden’s dire statements have been met with ridicule.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, the Russian embassy in Stockholm wrote: “Perhaps the Swedish leadership should stop driving its own people towards paranoia?”

‘Dream of war’

Alexey Pushkov, a member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, commented in a post to Telegram that “sometimes it seems like some Swedish military officers and journalists almost dream of war.”

“They can’t seem to calm down since the defeat at Poltava,” he added, referencing an early 18th century battle between Sweden and Russia in what is now Ukraine.

For Mark Galeotti, a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the prospect of Russia turning its sights towards Sweden seems far-fetched.

“I understand that military structures have to think about worst case scenarios. And Russia has demonstrated it to be more viciously aggressive than we had frankly anticipated,” Galeotti told AFP.

“That said, I have to confess I’m sceptical about the odds of any kind of scenario like that emerging,” he continued.

Several factors make it extremely unlikely, Galeotti said, including that “the Russian military, or at least ground forces in particular, has been chewed through” in the war in Ukraine, and rebuilding it will take years.

“The final question is, ‘Why on earth would Putin do it?’,” Galeotti said.

He explained that while Ukraine has a special place in Vladimir Putin’s vision of Russia, he has shown no indications of ambitions to retake the Baltic States — which is often speculated as a scenario that could drag in Sweden.

Galeotti also said it would be hard to imagine Russia wanting to move from an already costly conflict into an even larger one involving NATO countries.

Member comments

  1. A comment from a US friend of Sweden and many dear Swedes who hosted me as an exchange student: the thing that pacifist minded, well meaning people do not “get” is that the way to PREVENT war with an aggressive and opportunistic neighbor like Russia is to PREPARE for war in a very convincing way. Predators do not attack the strong, they seek to take advantage of the weak!

  2. unnecessary fear-mongering from the Swedish government! Our neighbor Finland which has a much more feasible threat did not issue any such warnings

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MILITARY

Swedish parliament votes in favour of Defence Cooperation Agreement with the US

Swedish law-makers have signed off on the controversial Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States, despite critics saying it could lead to the deployment of nuclear weapons and permanent US bases in the country.

Swedish parliament votes in favour of Defence Cooperation Agreement with the US

The DCA is a major step for a nation that in March ended two centuries of military non-alliance to join Nato.

Signed by Stockholm and Washington in December, the deal gives the US access to 17 military bases and training areas in Sweden, and allows the storage of weapons, military equipment and ammunition.

The agreement was approved by a broad majority in parliament following an almost five-hour debate, with 266 MPs voting in favour and 37 against, while 46 were absent.

The main opponents, the Left and Green parties, had argued that the agreement ought to state outright that the Scandinavian country would not allow nuclear weapons on its territory.

READ ALSO:

“We want to see legislation that bans nuclear weapons from being brought onto Swedish soil,” Green Party MP Emma Berginger told parliament during Tuesday’s debate.

“Unfortunately, the government has chosen to sign an agreement that doesn’t close the door to nuclear weapons, and therefore the Green Party is going to vote no to this agreement,” she told said during the debate.

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Greens leader Daniel Helldén had argued on Monday that the agreement made Sweden “a target for nuclear weapons” since “we’re going to have 17 bases where the Americans can store (military) materiel”.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s centre-right minority government, propped up by the far-right Sweden Democrats, has said the deal respects Swedish sovereignty.

“It is very clear that Sweden is a sovereign nation, and there is no other country that can force Sweden to have nuclear weapons on Swedish soil,” Defence Minister Pål Jonson insisted.

‘Naive’

The Left and Green parties, which also voted against Sweden’s Nato membership, together hold just 42 seats in parliament, which was not enough to block the agreement’s adoption on their own.

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association, one of the biggest critics of the move, said two successive Swedish governments insisted during the Nato application process that Sweden would have the same stance on nuclear weapons as neighbouring Denmark and Norway.

“But unlike Norway’s and Denmark’s DCA agreements, there is no clause in Sweden’s agreement against nuclear weapons being brought into or placed in Sweden,” the association’s head Kerstin Bergeå wrote in an op-ed.

In addition, Finland, which joined Nato in April 2023, “has a national law prohibiting nuclear weapons on Finnish territory and Finland’s DCA agreement refers to this law”.

A similar Swedish clause would “strengthen the Nordic region and contribute to a joint de-escalation vis-a-vis Russian nuclear weapons”, Bergeå said.

Nukes in wartime?

Sweden’s prime minister made headlines last month when he opened the door for the possibility of nuclear weapons in the country during wartime.

“In a war situation it’s a completely different matter, (it) would depend entirely on what would happen,” Kristersson told public radio broadcaster SR.

Two Left Party MPs said in an op-ed on Sunday: “That’s an incredible statement and is totally the opposite of what the Swedish people think and what Sweden has long stood for.”

Bergeå questioned whether Sweden would be able to put a brake on the United States.

“An agreement based solely on confidence is not enough in important matters such as these,” she said.

Jonson, the defence minister, has said Sweden needed to strengthen its international cooperation “to defend our freedom and democracy”.

“With the DCA, Sweden can receive early, swift and effective military support from the United States in a deteriorating security situation,” he said last month.

“The agreement acts as a deterrent and is stabilising. It reduces the risk of war breaking out and makes Sweden safer,” Jonson said.

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