Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin revealed the new war survival brochure in October (Picture: Claudio Bresciani/AP)
Sweden and Finland have told millions of citizens how to be prepared in the case of a war and crisis.
The Nordic neighbours have published updated guidance today detailing what to do in the case of a conflict.
It comes just hours after US allowed Ukraine to use its long-range weapons to strike inside Russia.
The move was criticised by Russian politicians and Donald Trump Jr who wrote on X: ‘Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going.’
The Swedish and Finnish guides advise to stock up on non-perishable food in case people can’t leave their homes (Picture: Getty Images)
Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency will mail an updated version of the ‘In case of crisis or war’ brochure to five million households in the country from today.
It details how to be prepared across different areas of life, including shelter, home preparedness, psychological defence, digital security, terror attacks, disease outbreaks and extreme weather across 32 pages – double the size of the previous pamphlet six years ago.
The Swedish government has released the new guidance after ‘the state of the world has worsened drastically in recent years’ – referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sweden also joined NATO in March which means a shift in the perceived threat landscape after becoming a member of the military alliance despised by Russia.
In Finland, the government also issued fresh advice online today called ‘Preparing for incidents and crises.’
Finland, which shares a 833-mile border with Russia, joined NATO in April last year.
Its advice, only published online, details how a war or a crisis could disrupt everyday life and what to do about it.
The Swedish brochure says ‘If Sweden is attacked, we will never surrender. Any suggestion to the contrary is false.’
What is in the war pamphlet?
Surviving a conflict or crisis might be nothing new to doomsday preppers, but majority of modern city dwellers relying largely on digital services might not have thought about things like having a stock of cash if banking is down or storing drinking water.
The English version of Sweden’s new war pamphlet (Picture: MSB)
Sweden’s brochure includes exactly that – details on how to store emergency drinking water during a shortage, heating if the electricity is cut during the winter and building up an emergency food supply.
It tells people to have enough cash for at least one week in different denominations. The Finnish guidance advises citizens to have cash for everyday supplies for a ‘few days.’
To get through a crisis situation, the Finnish online brochure suggests playing games, reading books or doing crafts to kill time.
It instructs people how to keep warm at home in the country where winter temperatures remain on average below 0C and can erach below -30C in northern Finland.
The brochure says: ‘In cold temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius in winter, the indoor temperature of the dwelling will drop below 10 degrees Celsius from just over one day to four days depending on the building.’
It also explains about civilian shelters which are dotted across both Sweden and Finland.
Metro visited one of Finland’s many bomb shelters in March, including a huge shelter with room for 6,000 people in Helsinki boasting a sport courts, children’s play park and a food court.
Daniel Backström, a volunteer lead with the Finnish Civil Defence, told Metro previously: ‘We have never forgotten these things, due to our history – we have always found preparation to be very important.’
Despite being neighbours and sharing hundreds of years of history, Finland and Sweden have had a very different experiences with Russia and have their own geopolitical issues – although both are located around the Baltic Sea.
While neither were ever part of the Soviet Union, tiny Finland successfully fought USSR’s enormous military power during various wars between 1939 and 1945.
Sweden was officially neutral during World War II and it avoided having any direct fighting on its territory.
Although Sweden was officially non-aligned during the war, the country made concessions to Nazi Germany, including allowing German soldiers to transit through on their way to the Finnish-Russian border from occupied Norway.
Finland was allied with the Nazis and Germany launched its operations agains the USSR from north Finland and Lapland – a dark time in Finland’s history.
Because of this recent experience of war only a couple of generations ago, Finland has always maintened a relatively high level of preparedness, including armed forces based on mandatory conscription for men.
In the early 2010s, Sweden swapped a mandatory military service for men for a professional model more akin to the UK system.
But just seven years later, it made a U-turn and brought back military draft, but this time for both men and women.
Norway and Denmark have recently also published new war pamphlets.
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