Denmark to conscript women into armed forces for first time

The country scaled back its military capabilities after the Cold War ended but is reassessing the situation in a changed security climate. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the revised policy was designed to increase the number of young people doing military service. We are rearming right now to avoid war and in a world where the international order is being challenged,” Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday, indirectly referring to Russia’s military moves in recent years and months. The country scaled back its military capabilities after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, but Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has reawakened concerns about security on the continent. On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would send troops to its border with Finland, which joined NATO last year as a result of the Ukraine invasion, as Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo warned Moscow was gearing up for a “long conflict with the West”.