Sweden intensifies defense measures, including modernization of covers, cyber safety and drug stocks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sweden announced an investment of 100 million Swedish crowns (approximately EUR 9.2 million) on Tuesday for civil protection coverage. Currently, about 64,000 protective bunkers with a total capacity of approximately seven million people have more than almost any other state. According to the AFP report, TASR writes about it.
Since joining NATO in March 2024, the Swedish Civilian Unprediceed Situations Agency (MSB) has intensified coverage checks. Several of them have a capacity for up to thousands of people.
According to MSB, covers protect people in them from the effects of pressure wool and bombs fragments, explosions and thermal waves from nuclear weapons, radioactive grades, gases from chemical weapons and biological weapons.
The agency said on Monday that an extensive project of modernization of nuclear covers, which, according to her expectations, will last “two to three years”. This year, MSB wants to replace the filters that protect people in the covers from chemical and radiological weapons.
The Swedish government also invests in improving the ability of emergency services to operate during conflicts, strengthening cyber safety and supplementing drugs.
Sweden increased investment in defense after the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian Peninsula Crimea in 2014 and subsequently after the Russian invasion of Ukraine eight years later. The government has also created the post of Minister for Civil Protection, which will work with the Minister of the Armed Forces to mobilize civilians and armies in the event of a threat.
