Sweden, Finland and Norway have issued guidance to their citizens telling them how to prepare for war as concerns grow about a Russian escalation.
Ukraine is believed to have fired its first US-supplied long-range missiles into Russia a day after Washington gave its permission for such attacks.
The Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) was used in a strike on Russia’s Bryansk region this morning, the ministry of defence in Moscow said.
Five missiles were shot down and one damaged, with its fragments causing a fire at a military facility in the region.
The strike represents the first time the long-range missiles have been used on Russia’s internationally-recognised territory after Washington signalled Ukraine had permission to do so. Russia has vowed to “react accordingly.”
In the Nordics, meanwhile, booklets have been distributed to millions of households that include instructions on how to prepare for the effects of military conflicts, communications outages and power cuts, as well as extreme weather events.
From stockpiling bottled water and sanitary products, to growing edible foodstuffs at home, government authorities offered tips on how residents could sustain themselves in the event of war.
The brochures also include advice for parents and caregivers, instructing people to preserve diapers, medication and baby food.
The Swedish government will distribute “Om krisen eller kriget kommer (If crisis or war comes),” to all five million households over a two-week period from November 18, according to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), a governmental agency that compiled the pamphlet.
The fifth version of the Swedish brochure, which was first published in World War II, will place “greater emphasis on preparing for war,” a statement from the MSB said on Monday.
The digital version of brochure, released in October, has been downloaded about 55,000 times, the agency added.
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