NATO state seeking more cemetery space for potential war dead – AP

Funeral associations in Sweden are looking to secure enough land to bury thousands of people in the event of a war, the Associated Press has reported. The Nordic country joined NATO earlier this year, amid the US-led military bloc’s growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The burial association in Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, is trying to acquire additional land to ensure casket sites for some 30,000 dead, on top of what is needed for graveyards for regular use, AP wrote on Saturday.

Swedish media outlets reported earlier this month that the authorities were bracing for up to half a million potential fatalities if the country were to enter a full-scale war.

“In big cities… land resources are scarce to begin with and not always sufficient to meet burial ground needs even in times of calm and peace,” AP quoted Katarina Evenseth, senior advisor at the Goteborg Burial Association, as saying.

In October, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) released updated civil preparedness guides with instructions on how to survive during an armed conflict. The brochure, dubbed “In case of crisis or war,” contains advice on evacuation, how to stop bleeding, and other recommendations.

“The national security situation has changed drastically, and we all need to strengthen our resilience to various crises and, ultimately, war,” MSB Director General Mikael Frisell said in a statement last month.

Stockholm dropped decades of military non-alliance and joined NATO in March, amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The US-led bloc has been supporting Kiev by providing military aid, and in November, Washington authorized strikes using its missiles deep inside Russian territory. France has also suggested that Ukraine should be allowed to fire its missiles into Russia in self-defense, and Moscow has claimed that British-supplied Storm Shadows have already been used in such strikes.

Moscow has reiterated that the move makes NATO a direct party to the conflict.

According to critics of Stockholm’s accession to NATO, Sweden has become a potential target in the event of a war.

”The Swedish people are facing a brutal reality where they are expected to adapt to a rhetoric of war that is not only foreign, but also deeply frightening… Instead of prioritizing peacekeeping efforts, politicians choose to place the country in a position where it risks becoming a battlefield for the power games of major powers,” Swedish conservative online platform Kulturbilder wrote earlier this month.

Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson stated in October that Russia posed a threat to Sweden, and that the country could not rule out a Russian attack. Several other NATO members, such as Poland and the Baltic countries, have voiced similar concerns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the claims as nonsense. Last week the Russian leader reiterated that Moscow was “striving to end the conflict.”