An emergency contingency unit of Sweden's armed forces has landed on gotland
by plane and passenger ferry, bringing troops and equipment to an island
many have compared to an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Baltic Sea.
The deployment comes amid rising jitters in Nordic and Baltic countries
about Russia's intentions on its border with ukraine and how they could
spill over to neighboring countries.
Sweden is reinforcing its military presence on the island of gotland, which
is the closest part of the country to russia. it comes after talks between
NATO, the United States and Moscow failed last week.
Although Sweden is not a nato member is a close ally of the military
alliance. Scotland is strategically located in the Baltic sea and the eu
baltic states all share a border with Russia.
It reported that the deployment comes amid rising jitters in Nordic and
Baltic countries about russia's intentions on its border with ukraine and
how that could spill over to neighboring countries.
Swedish media noted at the weekend increased russian naval activity in the
Baltic sea as troops were sent to gotland. It is clear there is a risk, an
attack against sweden cannot be ruled out it's important to show we are not
naive.
"Sweden will not be caught napping if something happens. It is important to
send signals that we take this situation seriously," defense minister Peter
Haltikiva told radio station echoed on saturday.
Russia's deployment of more than 100,000 troops to the ukrainian border and
its harsh diplomatic rhetoric have led sweden and finland, both militarily
not aligned to stress that they retained the option to apply for nato
membership.
Amajority in sweden's parliament is in favor of membership of the military
alliance, but the ruling center-left social democrats are not and without
their support sweden is unlikely to join.
Experts said that sweden which had no permanent military presence on gatlin
from 2005 until 2016 as it decreased defense spending after the cold war,
was forced to act so visibly owing to the relative weakness of its armed
forces.
It took similar action in august 2020 sending over armored vehicles
alongside holidaymaker's campervans on the ferry, to the popular tourist
island as Russia held a number of military exercises in the region.
According to the financial times, sweden has increased its defense spending
significantly in recent years after a series of embarrassments including not
being able to scramble jets as Russia simulated an attack on stockholm as it
was the easter weekend, and searching unsuccessfully for a suspected russian
submarine in the archipelago outside the swedish capital.
The three Baltic countries, which are members of nato had long urged sweden
to take the security of gotland more seriously, and swedish forces. Together
with a large contingent of u.s troops held their biggest exercise for
decades in 2017 including an attack on gotland, which one US general called
an unsinkable aircraft carrier.
Even as the extra troops arrived at the weekend defense chiefs on gotland
tried to suit the nerves of local residents. "I sleep rather well at night,
and the risk of armed conflict is low said matthias arden head of the
gotland regiment."
"Swedish police also reported on friday unidentified drones flying over at
least one and possibly as many as four nuclear power plants. Police who
informed sweden's armed forces," said they viewed the possibly connected
events as extremely serious.
Tensions between the west and russia are rising after the talks over ukraine
failed, Moscow now has more than 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine's
border and on thursday and friday Ukraine was hit by cyber attacks that
knocked many government websites offline. It's widely thought that Russia
was behind them.
In Russia's far east forces continues to move westwards but moscow says has
no plans to attack ukraine. it says it needs assurances from nato that the
former soviet state won't ever join the alliance.
Russia also wants all of nato's weapons and forces out of eastern europe,
but nato has said Ukraine is an independent state and it's not up to moscow
whether it joins the alliance or not.
Experts say that the Russian president wants to extend russia's fear of
influence to eastern Europe and secure written commitments that NATO will
never again enlarge.
"If president putin is frustrated in reaching that goal some of his aides
suggested on the sidelines of the negotiations last week. then he would
pursue russia's security interests with results that would be felt acutely
in europe and the united states," said an expert who spoke on condition
anonymity to the new york times
"There were hence never quite spelled out that nuclear weapons could be
shifted to places, perhaps not far from the united states coastline that
would reduce warning times after a launch to as little as five minutes,
potentially igniting a confrontation with echoes of the 1962 cuban missile
crisis," the expert added.
The russian leader telegraphed that approach himself by warning repeatedly
in the past year that the west crossed the ever shifting red line that in mr
putin's mind, threatens russia's security, he would order an unexpected
response.
Russia's response will be asymmetrical fast and tough. Mr Putin said last
april referring to the kinds of unconventional military action that russia
could take if adversaries threatened our fundamental security interests.
The current crisis was touched off by the kremlin's release of a series of
demands then, if the USS and its Allies agreed, would effectively restore
Russia's sphere of influence close to soviet airlines, before nato expanded
into eastern europe.
It has also demanded that all u.s nuclear weapons be withdrawn from europe,
saying it felt threatened by their presence though the types and locations
of those weapons haven't changed in years and it wants a stop to all western
troop rotations through former warsaw pac states that have since joined
NATO.
