The Swedish government has announced the end of the “minimum citizenship” period and has prepared a package of changes that raises the requirements for applicants for a Swedish passport.
According to the government’s announcement, the basic residence requirement for applying for citizenship is planned to be increased from five to eight years. It is also proposed to introduce stricter requirements for “lifestyle,” self-sufficiency, knowledge of the Swedish language and the basics of society, as well as to reduce the use of the notification procedure so that more applicants fall under the new conditions.
In terms of financial criteria, the government explicitly states a benchmark – a requirement for self-sufficiency at a level of approximately SEK 20,000 per month. The majority of the changes are scheduled to come into force on June 6, 2026, with certain elements related to language tests possibly being introduced later.
According to Statistics Sweden (SCB), in 2024, there were 2,200,238 people living in the country who were born outside Sweden, accounting for about 20% of the population.
In terms of the structure of new arrivals, 116,197 people immigrated to Sweden in 2024. The largest group was immigrants from Ukraine (28,065 people), followed by “Sweden” (re-emigration, i.e., the return of those who had previously left) with 11,907 people. Among the most notable groups are also India (5,801), Germany (3,647), China (3,558), Syria (2,985), Poland (2,844), Pakistan (2,477), Turkey (2,107), Iran (1,972), as well as Russia (1,721) and Iraq (1,500).
On Thursday, the Swedish government decided to immediately allocate 1 billion Swedish kronor (over $110 million) to Ukraine for energy support in 2026, according to the SVT television portal.
“Swedish aid will be immediately directed to power plants, heaters, and spare parts needed to restore Ukraine’s energy supply,” said Minister for Development and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dows.
It is noted that next week, temperatures are expected to drop to minus 25 degrees in cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Sweden has announced that it will provide Ukraine with $200 million in direct budget support in 2026 to help meet the daily needs of citizens in the midst of the war, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.
“This funding will meet the daily needs of people in the midst of war, including critical public services, energy supplies, healthcare, schools, pensions, and other payments. We are deeply grateful to Sweden for its determination, support, and unwavering solidarity,” Sibiga said in a post on social media on Saturday.
According to him, Sweden has shown leadership from the very beginning: in August, it became the first country to provide Ukraine with $75 million in direct budget support, and now it is reinforcing that leadership with an additional contribution.
TK-Domashniy Tekstil, part of the Textile-Contact (TK Group) group of companies, significantly increased its exports in December, in particular, it began working with customers from Sweden for the first time, according to the group’s owner, Alexander Sokolovsky.
“December is just beginning, but it has already become a record month for TK-Domashniy Tekstil’s exports: since the beginning of the month, we have shipped seven trucks of our own products to Europe! We have started working with customers from Sweden for the first time, with whom we have contracted our own digitally printed fabrics,” he wrote on Facebook.
It is specified that the designs were provided by the customer, and the Chernihiv Textile Combine (TK-DT Chernihiv) was fully responsible for the manufacture of fabrics and digital printing.
Products were also shipped to a new customer in Romania.
According to Sokolovsky, two trucks went to a new partner in the Baltics with a custom order for mattresses filled with 70% Ukrainian flax.
“The covers for these mattresses were sewn from natural cotton fabric (half-panels), which is also manufactured at our textile production facility,” added the owner of TK Group.
This month, the company made two large shipments to Lithuania—to the DEPO supermarket chain, where two trucks of finished home textile products were delivered, and the next batch is already being prepared.
“In addition, we made another shipment to our regular customer in Georgia, the Domino supermarket chain. This time, it was an expanded range of home textiles under our HomeLine brand with pre-New Year designs,” said Sokolovsky.
At the same time, he noted that currently, TC and many light industry enterprises are facing a problem where even regular customers have been afraid to place orders in Ukraine for the past two years.
“Although it is us who are taking the risk here, not them. Interestingly, this was not the case at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022-2023. On the contrary, many Europeans tried to help Ukrainian entrepreneurs and, even understanding our capabilities, increased their orders despite logistical and other risks. Now, for some reason, it is much more difficult to break through, but we are doing everything possible and impossible,” Sokolovsky emphasized.
TK-Domashniy Tekstil is a leader in the production of fabrics, home textiles, and children’s products in Ukraine. Its asset portfolio includes one of the few finishing factories in Ukraine that produces cotton fabrics in Chernihiv, TK-DT Chernihiv. Its assets also include garment factories in Kyiv, Ternopil, Chernihiv, and Odesa; a shoe factory in Chyhyryn; a knitting factory; and a synthetic winterizer factory in Chernihiv.
The company’s products are imported to Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia, and France.
TK Group was founded in 1995. It is currently a holding company that brings together the entire spectrum of textile industry services, from raw materials and threads to ready-made solutions for B2B, B2G, and B2C customers.
The group consists of 13 factories and employs about 1,500 people.
Since the start of the full-scale war, the group has invested about $14.5 million in development.
The founder of the group is Sokolovsky, chairman of the Light Industry Defense Procurement Committee at the Federation of Employers of Ukraine and a member of the Manifest 42 public movement.
The Swedish government plans to significantly increase aid to Ukraine, to at least SEK 10 billion in 2026, and in this regard is gradually phasing out development aid to five countries: Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Liberia, and Bolivia.
According to the Swedish government’s official website, in June 2025, the government decided to redirect Swedish aid and allocated approximately SEK 1.7 billion from the aid budget to provide additional support to Ukraine and for vital humanitarian measures around the world.
“We are at a decisive moment in European history. Ukraine is under pressure both at the negotiating table and on the front lines. To increase support for Ukraine, we need to make difficult priorities. Therefore, Sweden is gradually phasing out development aid to Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Liberia, and Bolivia,” said Minister for Aid and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dusa.
Due to the termination of bilateral strategies, embassies in Bolivia, Liberia, and Zimbabwe are being closed. Diplomatic relations with these countries remain important and will be maintained, for example, through accreditation from another country in the region.
It is specified that humanitarian aid is not affected by the termination of development aid, and Sweden continues to be one of the world’s largest donors of humanitarian aid and long-term development cooperation worldwide.
Ukraine may purchase up to 150 Gripen fighter jets from Sweden, paying for them with frozen Russian assets, according to The Guardian newspaper.
“Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that the purchase could be financed by frozen Russian assets held in Western countries, as well as by allied states from the ‘Coalition of the Willing,’” the publication wrote on Thursday.
It is noted that Ukraine already has American-made F-16 fighter jets and French-made Mirage 2000 fighter jets. Gripen has long been considered more practical for Ukrainian combat conditions — for example, it is designed to take off and land on civilian roads as well as runways so that it can conduct combat operations from dispersed locations, not just airfields.
Justin Bronk, an air warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said that the Gripen E “hypothetically be a much more powerful medium-weight fighter” than Ukraine’s existing fleet, thanks to its radar, internal electronic warfare systems, and ability to carry and launch long-range Meteor air-to-air missiles.
Sweden has reportedly ordered 60 of the latest Gripen E aircraft, and Saab is expanding capacity at its factory in Linköping, aiming to produce 20 to 30 aircraft per year, as well as building them in Brazil.
“We fully understand that there is a long way to go… But starting today, we are committed to exploring all possibilities to provide Ukraine with a large number of Gripen fighters in the future,” the publication quotes the Swedish prime minister as saying.
