STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s army stated on Thursday it was ramping up its seen actions on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland attributable to elevated tensions between NATO and Russia over Ukraine.
Moscow has spooked the West by massing troops close to Ukraine, sparking fears that it’s contemplating invading. Moscow denies any such plans, saying it might deploy forces on its territory nonetheless it chooses.
Gotland, Sweden’s greatest island, is strategically essential and lies round 330 kilometres (205 miles) from Kaliningrad, the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. In 2019 Sweden deployed an up to date ground-to-air missile defence system on the island.
“From as we speak, we can have patrols out that will probably be seen in sure locations, together with in (town of) Visby,” Gotland regiment spokesperson Tomas Angshammar stated.
Sweden shouldn’t be a NATO member however has shut ties to the Atlantic alliance and has been beefing up its armed forces after many years of neglect amid elevated nervousness over Russian sabre-rattling within the Baltic Sea area.
Stockholm has lately complained over a number of incidents involving Russian army planes, together with violations of Swedish airspace.
Sweden’s prime army commander stated final week that Sweden’s safety technique can be fully undermined if NATO agreed to chorus from increasing additional and to curb a few of its exercise in Europe, as Russia has demanded.
(Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Gareth Jones)
