Several European countries are advising their citizens to be prepared for war, while Russia and Ukraine recently witnessed a grim milestone: the thousandth day of the conflict. Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark have issued advisories asking citizens to ensure they can provide for themselves in the event of a crisis.
While Sweden on Monday began sending out millions of leaflets with information about preparing for war, natural disasters and cyber or terrorist attacks, Finland launched a website with information about preparedness for various crises.
The Swedish pamphlet says: “The military threat is increasing. We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario: an armed attack on Sweden.”
The 32-page booklet ‘If Crisis Or War Comes’ includes tips such as stocking up on non-perishable food and water, keeping cash on hand and growing fruit and vegetables in gardens.
“If Sweden is attacked by another country, we will never give up. All information that suggests that the resistance must stop is false,” the booklet states.
It is an updated version of a pamphlet that Sweden has published five times since World War II.
The new version does not mention Russia, Ukraine or any other country by name.
The brochure is available in print in both Swedish and English, and digital versions are available in several other languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Ukrainian, Polish, Somali and Finnish.
The Finnish website claims that authorities are “well prepared for self-defense.”
The country shares a 1,340 kilometer border with Russia and has maintained a higher level of preparedness.
Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland announced plans to build a 200-kilometer-long border fence – 3 meters high and covered in barbed wire – with Russia, to be completed in 2026.
Both the Swedish and Finnish checklists include easy-to-prepare foods. Finland has also asked its citizens to ensure a backup power supply.
Meanwhile, Norway has urged its citizens to be prepared to make it on their own for a week in case of war and other threats.
“We sent out 2.2 million paper copies, one for every household in Norway,” BBC quoted Tore Kamfjord: responsible for the self-preparedness campaign at the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), as mentioned.
Cans of beans, energy bars, pasta and medicines – including iodine tablets in the event of a nuclear accident – are on the list of items to keep at home.
Nordic neighbors Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment to join the US-led defense alliance NATO, in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Norway was a founding member of the Western defensive alliance.
According to a BBC report, Denmark’s Emergency Management Agency emailed its citizens information about the water, food and medicine they would need to weather a three-day crisis.
On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin relaxed Russia’s rules on nuclear strikes, days after the US allowed Ukraine to fire American-made long-range missiles into Russian territory.
Twenty-three of NATO’s 32 members (up from just three a decade ago) have now agreed to meet the target of spending two percent of gross domestic product on defense.
However, the growing consensus is that Europe will need to do more to ensure it can stand on its own.