By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
STOCKHOLM/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – With Ukraine firing Western missiles deep into Russia and Moscow not ruling out using nuclear weapons in response, millions of Europeans are urged to prepare for an escalation of the armed conflict.
Perhaps nowhere is that as clear as in Scandinavia, where millions of Swedes will start receiving copies of a pamphlet advising the population how to cope in the event of war or another unexpected crisis.
“In case of crisis or war” has been updated from six years ago because of what the government in Stockholm calls “the worsening security situation,” which means Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Neighboring Finland has also just published its fresh advice online on “preparing for incidents and crises.”
Norwegians also recently received a pamphlet urging them to be prepared to manage on their own for a week in extreme weather, war, and other threats.
During the summer, Denmark’s emergency management agency said it was emailing Danish adults about the water, food, and medicine they would need to survive a three-day crisis.
In a detailed section on military conflict, the Finnish digital brochure explains how the government and president would respond in an armed attack, stressing that Finland’s authorities are “well prepared for self-defense.”
JOINING NATO
Sweden joined the NATO military alliance only this year, deciding, like Finland, to apply after Moscow expanded its war in 2022. Norway was a founding member of NATO.
Unlike Sweden and Norway, the Helsinki government has decided not to print a copy for every home as it “would cost millions,” and officials said a digital version could be updated more easily.
“We have sent out 2.2 million paper copies, one for each household in Norway,” said Tore Kamfjord, who is responsible for the campaign of self-preparedness at the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB).
In other Western countries, people are also encouraged to stock up on food and water for at least three or four days and on batteries for lights, radios, and mobile phones.
“We certainly live in strange times,” said a bartender at an Irish Becketts pub in Budapest, Hungary, talking to Worthy News.“People are even stocking up on food and water.”
Yet, with war just hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, people could still be seen drinking Guinness beer from Ireland.
If it’s up to Hungary’s government, Budapest remains peaceful as it does not want other European nations to become involved in the Ukraine-Russia war.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A remote Indigenous community in western Canada was reeling Friday after a grizzly bear mauled a group of schoolchildren and teachers on a forest trail in British Columbia, injuring 11 people — two of them critically, according to local officials.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was expected to join a high-level phone call Friday on a U.S.-Russian proposal to end the war in Ukraine, amid escalating deadly attacks in the embattled nation, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Delegates assessed the damage from a fire that briefly spread through several pavilions at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil on Thursday, the latest setback for the gathering known as COP30.
A strong 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook central Bangladesh on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 300, authorities and local media said, as buildings in the capital Dhaka swayed violently and panicked residents fled into the streets.
Authorities say a boiler at a glue-making factory in eastern Pakistan exploded on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring 21 others, underscoring broader concerns over safety standards in the Islamic nation.
At least scores of students were abducted from a Catholic mission school in Nigeria’s troubled North Central region early Friday, just days after gunmen attacked a church, killing two people and taking dozens of worshippers hostage, officials and witnesses said.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that it uncovered one of the most extensive and sophisticated Hamas tunnel systems discovered to date, a sprawling underground route running more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles) and plunging approximately 25 meters (82 feet) underground beneath Rafah.