Russian Mig-31 aircraft according to TASS agency they practiced mid-air refueling. At a certain stage of their route, “they were accompanied by foreign fighters”, the agency said, citing the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson in an interview for the paper Financial Times stated that the Russians were “interested” in the Swedish island of Gotland.
Due to its “central position in the Baltic Sea”, in the event of a Russian attack, the latter would play a decisive role in the defense of not only Sweden, but also Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland.
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“Strengthening the defense of Gotland, the most strategically important island in the region, will be the first topic to be discussed with NATO partners,” said the Swedish prime minister.
Sweden became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last week, abandoning more than two centuries of neutrality.
Gotland, which is often called “the largest aircraft carrier in the Baltic”, lies only regarding 300 kilometers from the metropolis of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Sweden demilitarized it in 2005, following the end of the Cold War. After the Russian annexation of Crimea, however, it changed its mind on the matter.
A new regiment appeared on the island, which in 2018 numbered approximately four hundred permanently deployed soldiers, a mechanized battalion with CV90 armored vehicles and Leopard 2 tanks, as well as a unit with amphibious vehicles.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 then meant that the Swedish government invested 143 million euros (CZK 3.6 billion) in strengthening the military infrastructure on Gotland, and in 2023 the Swedish armed forces, in cooperation with NATO, held the largest military exercise on the island in the last two decades.
Sweden’s accession to NATO significantly strengthened the defense of the Baltic states.
“Gotland, as part of the alliance defense, changes the situation considerably. Strategic control over the Baltic Sea is in the hands of NATO. And the Russians know it very well,” Latvian Foreign Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš commented on the situation according to the Financial Times.
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