Large-scale evacuation exercise held on Sweden’s Gotland — RMF24
On the Swedish island of Gotland, hundreds of residents took part on Wednesday in a civilian evacuation exercise in the event of war. It was Sweden’s largest defence exercise in many years; the last similar event on the island was held in the 1960s, RMF24 reports.
Evacuation and temporary crossing
The exercise involved the military, police, the Red Cross and local authorities. The scenario provided for the evacuation of residents, with particular attention to elderly people, children and people with disabilities.
Participants also practised actions in the event of damaged roads and the need for temporary crossings. For this purpose, a 24-metre bridge was built to test how quickly vital transport links could be restored in a crisis situation.
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Protection of a strategic island
Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria attended the exercise. Modern technologies were also tested on Gotland, including solutions inspired by the experience of the war in Ukraine. These included special nets to protect strategic infrastructure from drone attacks.
Gotland is of strategic importance for the security of shipping in the Baltic Sea. The island is located less than 300 kilometres from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. In 2018, the Swedish government returned a permanent military garrison to the island, and additional units and a reserve port in northern Gotland are now being developed in case Visby is lost.
Local authorities stressed that the exercise was not connected to current events or provocations in the region, as it had been planned in advance. According to Maciej Onoszka, a representative of the local branch of the Swedish-Polish Society, the island’s residents take such measures seriously but do not panic.
