Employees of the Swedish Department of Psychological Protection have been working in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. They educate and train the Ukrainian departments in the conduct of the struggle in the information arena. This was announced on Tuesday, June 13, in an interview with the SVT television channel by the head of one of the departments of the department, Mikael Tofvesson.
He said that the report submitted to the Swedish Ministry of Defense, in particular, describes that in the spring of 2022, Swedish specialists advised the Ukrainian authorities and helped them communicate with the population in connection with the Russian special operation that had begun.
“Another important issue was the development of resilience to [psychological] external influences in those who could be exposed to it,” Tofvesson said.
According to him, the work of Swedish psychological defense specialists was not advertised, and their number was not disclosed. He also stressed that the department is not engaged in “military trolling in social networks or anything like that”, but provides support to Kyiv with expert assessments and analysis, but “Ukraine defends itself.”
Earlier this month, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told a conference ahead of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 that Sweden’s support for Ukraine is comprehensive and long-term.
The Minister recalled that the amount of assistance to Kyiv from the Swedish side has exceeded 21.5 billion Swedish kronor ($2 billion) since the beginning of the special operation. Thus, on November 17, the parliament of the republic (Riksdag) approved the transfer of military equipment to Kyiv in the amount of more than 3 billion Swedish kronor (over $280 million). In March of this year, Sweden handed over 10 Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Stockholm also decided to promote the training of Ukrainian soldiers.
In addition, as Minister of Defense of the Republic Paul Jonsson said on April 22, Sweden is ready to review its industrial capacities in order to increase military support to Kyiv.
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the background of Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass, which the Russian authorities announced on February 24, 2022 amid the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
Russia has repeatedly condemned the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note to all NATO countries in April last year over the supply of weapons to Kiev, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in turn, noted that any shipments that contain weapons for the Ukrainian army would become a legitimate target for Russia.