For Sweden the War Aim is No Longer an Ukrainian Restitution, but the Defeat of Russia

publicerad 17 september 2024
- Kristoffer Hell
Swedish Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén and PM Ulf Kristersson
Swedish Government's support package for Ukraine 2022-2024

On 9 September 2024, the Swedish government dropped a bombshell: the war goal is no longer peace talks or Ukrainian restitution – it’s Russia’s defeat.

Defense Minister Pål Jonson, flanked by politicians from three parties, revealed Sweden’s 17th military aid package: 4.6 billion SEK (approximately 340 million GBP). But the real shocker was the shift in strategy. Now, it’s not just about helping Ukraine hold or retake ground – it’s about crushing Russia.

”These are the incredibly important steps for Ukraine to win the war and, ultimately, for Russia to lose the war, which is just as important”.

Why did this ostensible mission shift from aiding one country to crushing another?

Was the plan always to destroy Russia, or has something changed?

Foreign reports claim that on 3 September 2024, SAAB may have lost an entire division in a Russian attack on Poltava, with three Swedish officers killed. The Defence Ministry denies it, and SAAB remains silent.

If true, this might explain why the Swedish government is digging in its heels against Russia. Poltava is still a sore point for the Kingdom. It was in Poltava, in the summer of 1709, that Russia dethroned Sweden as a European imperial power.

Whatever the reason, Sweden’s change in war aims no doubt resonates well with Washington and NATO, which Sweden recently joined after two centuries of non-aligned peace.

NewsVoice has previously reported that Ukrainian military intelligence has been seen working with maps dividing Russia, the world’s largest country by area, into half a dozen smaller, easier-to-manage states.

The map below was published in the Zelensky-loyal ”Kyiv Post – Ukraine’s Global Voice” on 17 August 2022 and shows the plan for how to dismember Russia.

Post Russia
Post Russia. Map: Ukrainian Intelligence Service

The 17 Aid Packages

So far, Sweden has provided 17 military aid packages to Kyiv. Here’s how they look when placed in a bar chart.

Swedish Government's support package for Ukraine 2022-2024
Swedish Government’s support package for Ukraine 2022-2024

Aid package number 12, amounting to 250 million SEK, was announced on 16 June 2023 during Kyiv’s much-touted summer offensive, which ended in massive losses of both lives and equipment for Ukraine. After this debacle, aid package number 13 followed, with the government subsequently ratcheting up military aid to 13.3 billion SEK on 29 May 2024.

After package 16, Kyiv’s daring raid into Russia’s Kursk region—where it failed to seize a nuclear power plant—collapsed. Currently, Kyiv’s best soldiers are being decimated in an operation that Russian analysts believe will take no more than 2-3 months. Then, on 3 September 2024, Poltava 2.0, reportedly wiping out an entire generation of NATO and Ukrainian electronic warfare specialists.

Will the current round of aid packages grow just as rapidly as the previous ones did, with ever more astronomical sums each round, ahead of NATO’s next Kiev offensive, perhaps slated for early 2025?

 

Sources


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