Finding well-trained individuals for the Defence Forces' units is not a problem at present. However, total defence and Sweden's endurance can be negatively affected by poorer public health among the population.
If basic social services cease to function, a person with poor physical fitness may find it harder to carry water, chop wood or perform other physically demanding tasks.
I'm very worried about that. When we're building up a defence capability in Sweden, it's not gadgets we're building it on, but people. If you have poorer physical condition, you also have poorer resilience, and what we're seeing in Ukraine is that Russia is attacking civilian targets in an attempt to break down the population so that they give up, says Claes Ivgren, brigadier general and the Defence Forces' chief medical officer, to DN.
