Four Russian aircraft violated Swedish airspace near the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, two of which were equipped with nuclear weapons.
A group of four aircraft took off from the air base in Kaliningrad. The group consisted of two Su-24 attack aircraft that were escorted by two Su-27 fighter jets. At the same time, according to TV4 Nyheter, two attack aircraft were equipped with nuclear weapons.
Over the conflict in Ukraine, the Swedish Air Force was on high alert and noticed early that Russian pilots were heading for Gotland.
The Swedish Armed Forces believe that the violation was intentional.
"We assess this as a conscious action. This is very serious, especially considering that you are a warring country. We've analyzed the incident, and it's clear that I can't rule out navigational errors, but everything indicates that it was a deliberate act. They violated the borders of Sweden," Air Force Commander Carl-Johan Edström says.
Russian aircraft remained in Swedish airspace for about a minute. In response, the Swedish Air Force scrambled two JAS 39 Gripen to intercept them. It was at this moment that Russian aircraft were confirmed to be equipped with nuclear weapons.
Military experts consider the incident as a clear expression of Russia's intent as a form of intimidation.
"This is a signal from Sweden that we have nuclear weapons, and we could also consider using them," military strategist Stefan Ring says.
Recall that the Russian fascism ideologists voiced plans to capture the Baltic states through the primary capture of the Swedish island of Gotland that is located to the west of them. The capture of Gotland included deploying a Russian military base on it from where it was possible to strike at Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
There are two gas pipelines in the waters of the Baltic Sea: Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. The last of these was built on the eve of the Russian invaders incursion into Ukraine, but is not used and, apparently, is doomed to lie like a dead weight on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
It is noteworthy that Sweden officially refused NATO membership a week before the aggression against Ukraine. The government of the Kingdom stressed that they would combine their neutrality with increasing the combat readiness of the armed forces and developing international defense cooperation.
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