From Local (Sweden):  Russian fighter planes carried out training missions just outside the Swedish border over Easter; Sweden’s military, however, was too slow to react and had to rely on help from Nato, the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper (SvD) revealed on Monday.

The aircraft included two heavy bombers Tu-22M3 (referred to as Backfires by Nato) which were flanked by four jet fighter escorts. . . .

[I]n the early hours of Good Friday this year, the jets headed towards Sweden and flew over Gotska Sandön, an uninhabited Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. The planes were training for military attacks, information which had been kept secret from the public until Monday’s report by SvD.

According to SvD’s military sources, the planes were simulating attacks against Stockholm and somewhere in the south of Sweden.

No Swedish planes were prepared to meet the Russians and ward them off; however, jets from Nato in Lithuania and from Denmark were quick to respond, with two Lithuanian aircraft sent to shadow the Russian planes at a distance.  (photo: Max071086)  (via Edward Lucas)

Update from Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden:  "Well, as a matter of fact they did not. They were clearly in international airspace. Facts should be correct."

NATOSource: "Russian planes did not fly over Gotska Sandön?"

Carl Bildt: "No"