Swedish foreign minister didn’t resign over military losses after Poltava attack

The claim

On September 4, Sweden's foreign minister, Tobias Billström, announced his resignation. The decision came just two years into his tenure, during which Billström oversaw Sweden's accession to NATO, its first military alliance in more than 200 years. 

The announcement came the day after Russia's attack on the Ukrainian city of Poltava, which left at least 51 people dead and 271 injured. The attack hit the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, where officers are trained in operating drones, communications, and electronics. Shortly after the attack, users on social media claimed that Swedish instructors, supposedly there to train Ukraine's army in using Swedish Airborne Surveillance and Control (ASC 890) aircraft, were killed in the strike.

Billström's resignation is now being reported by Russian media and pro-Russian social media accounts as a direct result of the Poltava airstrike.

"This is an indirect confirmation that a large group of Swedish instructors were killed in Ukraine," the Russian propaganda network Pravda writes in an article (archived here) on its Swedish site. This was also claimed by the Russia Today-registered site Ukraina.ru (archived here). 

Reporting on Billström's departure, the Russian news outlet Argumenty i Fakty (archived here) claimed that "Sweden has lost all senior management of SAAB's airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) systems," citing a Telegram channel belonging to Vitaly Tretyakov, Dean of the School of Television at Moscow State University. 

A near-identical text appeared in English in a viral X post (archived here), which was seen over 564,000 times within less than 24 hours. Similar claims have also appeared on the Russian social media site VK (archived here, here) and on Telegram, where one Russian post (archived here) has been seen one million times.

Screenshots of X posts (archived here, here) and Telegram post (archived here).  

This, however, is false since no Swedish instructors were reported as killed in the attack.

What we found

Logically Facts debunked the claim that Swedish military instructors had been killed in Poltava when it appeared online this week.

Russian media outlets referred to a screenshot of a Facebook post written by an aid worker to confirm their reports about Swedish casualties – but this Facebook post is not real. The aid worker, Britta Ellwanger, said on social media that the screenshot was fake and that she did not write the post. Speaking to Logically Facts, Ellwanger explained that she is not connected to any Swedish aid groups.

Logically Facts also spoke to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who said that there are currently no reports that any Swedish citizens have been hurt or killed in the attack. Shortly after Logically Facts' fact-check, the Swedish military issued a debunking statement explaining that no Swedish military instructors had been killed.

EU countries do not train Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian territory, and a recent request from Kyiv to change this has been met with resistance, as doing so would put the countries' troops at risk.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Billström has not given a reason for his resignation. Swedish media speculation suggests that a conflict with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson over the appointment of a new state secretary could be behind it, but the government has refuted this. 

Logically Facts has contacted the press secretary of Sweden's foreign minister for comment.

One final thing…

Sweden hasn't suffered any military losses to Russia in the city of Poltava since 1709. 

During the Battle of Poltava, the Russian army killed or captured nearly the entire Swedish army of 17,000 men. This marked the end of Sweden's brief time as a major power in Europe and the start of Russia's supremacy in eastern Europe.

The verdict

No Swedish military instructors have been killed in Russia's airstrike on Poltava, and the Swedish foreign minister has not given a reason for his departure. Russian-backed outlets have created a connection between the events, which has no basis in fact. Therefore, we have rated this claim as false.