Fearing an extension of the Ukrainian conflict, Sweden and Finland are preparing their populations for war

The inhabitants of both countries received practical information on how to adopt reflexes in the event of war. After decades of non-alignment, Sweden and Finland joined NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These two nations fear an extension of the conflict.

It is a 32-page yellow brochure that nearly five million Swedes have discovered in their mailboxes since Monday, November 18. Its title is unequivocal: “In case of crisis or war”. Written by a government agency, this document is a booklet of practical recommendations, and its preamble sets the tone: “The military threat to Sweden has increased and we must prepare for the worst – an armed attack”. A warning intended to be sent to the entire Swedish population (approximately 10 million inhabitants). Inside, we discover the location of the country’s 65,000 fallout shelters, advice on stocking up on water and food at home, and recommendations for dealing with cyberattacks.

In Finland, there was no distribution of brochures, but a website was put online to provide advice to the population, and to encourage residents to get involved.

This practice is in fact anchored in habits in Sweden, where this kind of instructions have already been sent five times since the end of the Second World War, but the approach has been taken very seriously since the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, which has shaken up the strategic positioning of the Scandinavian countries.

In recent decades, they have been accustomed to a form of neutrality towards their Russian neighbor. An ambiguous position that was called “Finlandization”, a rather pejorative expression used to describe a country whose foreign policy is constrained by the power of a neighboring state, in this case Russia. This is why Finland and Sweden were not part of NATO until very recently. With the war in Ukraine, the two countries broke with non-alignment and initiated a process of joining the Atlantic alliance, concluded in March 2023 (Finland) and March 2024 (Sweden).

It must be said that while Sweden barely touches Russian territory, Finland shares more than 1,300 km of borders with Russia. Finland which, in relation to its population, has a similar share of soldiers to France, and has more cannons than France and Germany combined.