European diplomacy chief Josep Borrel has condemned the panic among some European officials and the military over Russia’s alleged plans to attack.
“I don’t know how they come to such assessments….. There is no need to anticipate the emergence of new problems, war is where it is,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
Borrell noted that the EU “already has enough work to do.”
On 8 January, Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Armed Forces Mikael Büden said that the country’s citizens should be prepared for a possible war.
His point of view was shared by the country’s Minister of Civil Defence Karl-Oskar Bulin.
The Russian Embassy in Stockholm urged the Swedish authorities to stop driving their own population to paranoia, scaring citizens of “allegedly almost inevitable war” with Moscow.
Later, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the reactions in the country to the warning about the possibility of war and the need to prepare for it excessive.