Must chief warns Sweden faces high Russian hybrid threat

Sweden is prepared for further escalation following a drone incident in Leipzig that has been attributed to Russia, SVT reports. The National Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss the incident.

Thomas Nilsson, head of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service, Must, said Russia was using advanced hybrid warfare against NATO countries, including Sweden.

“They want to make us uncertain, divide us and make us stop supporting Ukraine,” Nilsson said on SVT’s Morgonstudion.

Nilsson described the Leipzig incident as a hybrid attack that had raised the situation to a more dangerous level. The drone was armed with explosives, he said, so the assumption must be that it was intended to explode.

Sweden is prepared for a similar scenario, Nilsson said. “There is a high threat against our support for Ukraine, which also includes private companies and other parts of society. We are working hard and carrying out the protective operations needed to make it safe.”

Nilsson told Dagens Nyheter that Sweden was not currently a priority target for Russian hybrid warfare. He said Russia was instead focusing on targets in Germany, Poland and the Baltic states, but could quickly change its intentions and begin identifying and attacking targets in Sweden.

Denmark warned on Wednesday that Russia was preparing sabotage against the Danish defence industry, particularly businesses linked to Denmark’s military support for Ukraine.

According to Denmark’s security service PET, “completely ordinary Danes” were being contacted and offered assignments. These could involve photographing a warehouse, reporting when a factory received deliveries or carrying out arson attacks with serious consequences.

The Danish security service said it had caught Russian intelligence services in the act while they were preparing attacks in the near future, TT reported.