Sweden Issues Ominous Warning to Citizens

Swedish officials are warning their citizens to be readier than ever in case of war.

In May 2022, Sweden and Finland, known for their neutrality, announced that they would join NATO in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier that year. While Finland officially joined the alliance in April 2023, Sweden's bid to join faced obstacles when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized the nation's alleged inaction against Islamophobia, calling it a "red line." Hungary has also expressed concerns about Swedish membership.

Erdoğan later gave his approval for Sweden's NATO accession, though the Turkish Grand National Assembly still needs to give it the green light. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said late last year that his country was in no hurry to approve Sweden's bid.

However, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told German news agency DPA last week that Sweden has made all necessary concessions, predicting that the country will be approved as NATO's 32nd member by its next summit, set for July in Washington, D.C.

Sweden's entry into the alliance would boost NATO's regional impact, giving all five Nordic nations near-total control of "NATO Lake," a reference to the strategic importance of the Baltic Sea. Military airpower provided to NATO on Sweden's behalf would be a challenge to Russian forces in the sea, experts previously told Newsweek.

Now, nearly two years into the Russia-Ukraine conflict and amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Swedish citizens are being asked to be more cautious and prepared than ever.

"For a nation for whom peace has been a pleasant companion for almost 210 years, the idea that it is an immovable constant is conveniently close at hand," Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said Sunday during an annual conference in Sälen, a village on the country's eastern side.

"But taking comfort in this conclusion has become more dangerous than it has been for a very long time," he continued. Many have said it before me, but let me do so in an official capacity, more plainly and with naked clarity: There could be war in Sweden."

Newsweek reached out to the Swedish Defense Ministry and Civil Defense Ministry via email for comment.

Bohlin said his words weren't meant to cause fear but rather to create "situation awareness." He noted how Ukrainians likely thought their conflicts with Russia were a thing of the past until President Vladimir Putin decided to illegally annex Crimea in 2014 and then eight years later launched a full-scale invasion of the country.

"Societal resilience requires exactly that: situational awareness—awareness among individual citizens, employees, entrepreneurs and decision-makers in public administration," Bohlin said. "But it is not enough to simply contemplate the question. Civil defense is not primarily a theoretical exercise. Awareness must be translated into practical action, measures that actually raise the threshold."

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson issued the same warning during his own speech on Monday in Sälen. He said the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East indicated that "the world has become more dangerous than it was just a year ago."

He also cited "uncertainty" regarding the direction the U.S. will take after its 2024 elections. Many U.S. House Republicans have soured on providing continued funding for Ukraine, citing domestic issues that require more urgent attention, such as the migrant crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.

"An armed attack against Sweden cannot be ruled out," Jonson said. "War can also come to us. These serious times require clarity of vision, capacity to act and persistence—clarity of vision to understand that Russia's goal remains the eradication of a free Ukraine and creation of a Europe in which 'might is right,' with buffer states and spheres of interest.

"We have already experienced this in the past. We must not go back there and allow our children to grow up in that kind of Europe," Jonson said.

The warnings accompanied a broader "historic" defense plan scheduled to be unveiled later this year, which Swedish officials believe will bolster the country's impact as a NATO ally.

Jonson mentioned four objectives: building a stronger military corps, complete with both conscripts and professional soldiers; employing long-term ammunition procurements within the Nordic region to shorten waits for defense-related materials; introducing a revamped defense innovation strategy to achieve technological superiority on the battlefield; and swift expansion regarding security and establishing a "growth-based defense."

Jonson's and Bohli's words reflect those of other Swedish officials. Swedish Foreign Minister Billström told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter on Sunday that Russia will remain a Swedish and NATO threat indefinitely.

"We must prepare for a long-term confrontation that will continue as long as Russia violates the U.N. charter and the European security order," Billström said.

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that the strategies of countries like Sweden and other NATO allies are being accentuated because Ukraine aid from countries like the U.S. could end. Russia might view this as an opening for "spillover" into other foreign lands.

"These countries are actively assessing their risks, such as proximity to the war zone in Ukraine, infrastructural deficiencies, social tensions, government unpopularity, etcetera," Troitskiy said. "Their governments come under pressure to alert the citizenry about the risks of escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war to increase preparedness and mobilize the public opinion in support of helping Ukraine.

"For European governments, that is one of the few available tactics to combat the routinization by the public opinion of the war in Ukraine," he said.

Sweden, given its location in the Baltic region and sparse population, has long been wary about its geopolitical standing, Troitskiy added. Thinking about possible escalatory measures by Russia, notably after Finland's admission to NATO and Sweden's efforts to join, is wise.

"As the European leaders are mulling war spillovers in those regions, their key dilemma is to find a balance between calls for more military expenditure and preparedness, on one hand, and accommodating their citizens' demands for economic growth, welfare and, in some cases, restoring beneficial economic ties with Russia, on the other," he said.