If they help us reveal shortcomings in ourselves, that's only good, Kristersson said at a press conference ahead of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Helsingborg.
Earlier in May, during the Aurora 26 defense exercise, Swedish forces were to practice against Ukrainian drone pilots on Gotland. The scenario was a threat from an unnamed country that was massing forces along NATO's eastern flank.
"That's when major shortcomings in Sweden's defense were discovered," a 24-year-old Ukrainian drone pilot told the AP.
If it had been real, they would have been dead.
Restarted three times
The Swedish defense had to restart the exercise three times to try to see what the forces could do better, according to the pilot.
Ukraine is currently probably the world's leading nation when it comes to drone warfare, Ulf Kristersson said.
Russia is also learning amazingly quickly, the Prime Minister added.
There is an incredibly rapid technological development in this. I think it is good that we are constantly testing ourselves against, for example, Ukraine, and I believe that we are constantly learning where we have shortcomings.
He does not want to reveal what lessons Sweden has learned from the exercise.
We fix them instead.
High security at the meeting
Ahead of an EU summit in Copenhagen last year, drones were suspected of disrupting air traffic, and when the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was off the coast of Malmö in February this year, a Russian drone violated Swedish airspace.
Ahead of the NATO meeting in Helsingborg on Thursday, security is high, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) said.
It is clear that Swedish authorities take security in connection with the meeting very seriously and ensure that the necessary resources are in place.
