The continuing crisis in Ukraine has the reputedly peaceful Swedes rethinking the nation's defense doctrine, and some are using the situation as a way to push for NATO membership in the run-up to parliamentary elections.

Only a few weeks after announcing cuts to the defense budget, Finance Minister Anders Borg told the TT news agency Wednesday "there is a lot indicating" that more money will have to be allocated to military defense.

Much of the political debate leading up to the elections in September has been focused on the need to spend more on education and other domestic policies, so any hint that a boost to defense budgets is in the pipeline signals a dramatic U-turn.

In recent years, Swedish policy on defense has been based on the view that there are no conceivable threats to Swedish territory in the near term, and the military has been scaled down and reshaped to focus on participation in international operations. However, after Russia's recent military intervention in Crimea, politicians of different stripes are now saying there should be an expansion in the defense budget and a strengthening of the country's military presence on the strategically important island of Gotland in the Baltic sea.

Jan Björklund, who heads the center-right Liberal Party—a junior partner in Sweden's four-party coalition government—said Wednesday in interviews with reporters that Sweden now needs a "shift in doctrine," so that the main task of its defense force will once again be defending Swedish territory.