That’s why Sweden is preparing for Gotland – VG

Through Sunday, Swedish tanks became a familiar sight around strategically located Jutland. Sweden’s foreign minister believes that the country is not in immediate danger, but does not rule out the possibility of this happening in the future.

For the armed forces to just sit back and watch for the time being, it was almost a service mistake.

This is what the press secretary of the Swedish Armed Forces, Therese Fagerstedt said SVT About the ever-increasing Military readiness in Jutland.

Sunday Night Reports Aftonbladet The warship HNLMS Rotterdam is stationed in the Baltic Sea region of southern Sweden.

“We are there to show presence and solidarity with the entire alliance,” a NATO spokesperson told the newspaper.

Sweden is not a member of NATO. Swedish Defense Minister Peter Holtqvist He refuses They have plans to join now.

But Magnus Christianson, a researcher in military strategy at the Swedish National Defense College, says Gotland is important to NATO.

– It is related to the fact that if war breaks out in the Baltic states, which are members of NATO, it is important to be in Jutland where you can display air defense systems and naval robots, he says Aftonbladet.

Russian warships in the Baltic Sea

The background to the Swedish military presence in Jutland is the tense state of security policy in Europe as a result of the Russian mobilization on the Ukrainian border. The night before Wednesday, Russian warships sailed into the Baltic Sea. The Swedish forces monitored their flight from the combat aircraft that were sent.

Swedish media reported that on Sunday, military vehicles became a common sight around Jutland. At the same time the soldiers continue To patrol the selected sitesAs a port of Visby, which is inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Anne Linde says: Aftonbladet The security policy situation in Europe and near Sweden is “extremely dangerous”.

– I do not want to say that we are in immediate danger, but it cannot be excluded that we may be in the future, she said.

doing exercises

Gotland is strategically located in the Baltic Sea and gives the Swedish Armed Forces a good overview and an opportunity to control what is going on in the region.

– We have a tense world situation, and we have had a deteriorating world situation for a long time, says the commander of the P18 Gotland Regiment, Matthias Arden, express.

He explains that from this perspective, the armed forces have chosen to transfer some additional resources to Jutland. The fact that several regiments are now united makes it possible to conduct exercises.

What we’re doing now is creating discretion for what might happen, says Arden.

Radar and automatic gun

The third military reinforcements arrived in one day at noon on Saturday. According to reports, there were more tanks and soldiers on board the ferry SVT.

Military emergency plane also has The Swedish Armed Forces Emergency Response Force has moved to Gotland. It is unclear how large the resources are now available, according to Swedish newspapers.

defense according to express They’re still hesitant about what workouts are going on, but on Sunday showed one of the money they had:

A tank that can use radar to detect threats from above, identify them and shoot them down with an automatic cannon.

Troop commander Christopher Rahlskog was stationed in Jutland for a long time. “This is one of the vehicles we will use to see if there is anything here,” he told the newspaper.

– At the moment, there is nothing to report, but we want to keep an alert.