MADRID, May 3. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ann Linde, has announced that the Swedish Embassy in the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, will reopen this Wednesday, thus joining countries such as Hungary or Denmark that, in the last 24 hours, have decided to reactivate their diplomatic missions after several months of closure as a result of the Russian invasion.
“On Wednesday, the Swedish Embassy will reopen in kyiv. Thank you, Tobias Thyberg, and team for your hard work, and to Poland for temporarily hosting us. Sweden will continue to stand with Ukraine and is delighted that the diplomatic presence is back where it belongs,” has noted on his official Twitter profile.
Russia announced a week ago the expulsion of four Swedish diplomats in response to “hostile actions” by Stockholm, which had previously declared three Russian diplomats persona non grata in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
This decision also comes within the framework of the intention of Sweden and Finland to jointly present their respective applications to join NATO in mid-May, which could happen on May 16, taking advantage of the visit to Stockholm of the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö .
Russia has repeatedly warned both countries of possible consequences if they finally join the alliance and has threatened to “restore the military balance” by reinforcing its troops in the Baltic and even deploying nuclear weapons.
Both Sweden and Finland are officially non-aligned states from a military point of view, but they are linked to NATO and have participated in exercises and shared intelligence information since 1995, when they joined the EU.
