Ministers in Sweden have blocked plans for more than a dozen offshore windfarms - citing fears they could make the country vulnerable to attacks from Russia, The Telegraph has reported.

Defence minister Pål Jonson announced a total of 13 windfarm applications had been refused due to concerns about "unacceptable consequences" for national security.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Jonson said: "The wind farms could lead to reduced intelligence-gathering capabilities and disrupt sensors used to detect submarines.

“Based on the assessment of the armed forces, building offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea would have unacceptable consequences for Swedish security.”

The defence minister warned turbines may disrupt missile detection systems and consequently half the time Sweden would have to react to an attack - to just 60 seconds.

His comments come after the publishing of a study by the Swedish Armed Forces about the impact of windfarms.

The Telegraph reports Stockholm is just 500km from the Russian exclave Kaliningrad, with Mr Jonson explaining that Sweden had to give "significant weight" to defence matters due to "war in close vicinity".

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