Russian attack cannot be ruled out says Swedish parliamentary report

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish parliament defence committee report said a Russian military attack against Sweden cannot be ruled out, Swedish public service broadcaster SVT said on Sunday, citing sources.

Sweden has been scrambling to bolster its defences and applied to join NATO last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sweden was invited to apply but Turkey and Hungary are yet to ratify the application.

The parliamentary report, due to be published on Monday, said that although Russian ground forces were tied up in Ukraine other types of military attacks against Sweden could not be ruled out, SVT said citing sources who worked on the report.

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“Russia has also further lowered its threshold for the use of military force and exhibits a high political and military risk appetite. Russia’s ability to carry out operations with air forces, naval forces, long-range weapons or nuclear weapons against Sweden remains intact,” SVT said, citing the report.

The chairman of the parliament defence committee did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

SVT said the report outlined out a new defence doctrine for Sweden, based on membership in NATO rather than they previous doctrine that relied on cooperation with fellow Nordic states and the EU.

Like most Western states Sweden scaled down its defence following the end of the Cold War but has ramped up defence spending and is due to meet NATO’s threshold of 2% GDP in 2026.