Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas warned Friday that the Russian threat is still present in the Kaliningrad exclave and warned that in the area «the military has been replaced and nuclear weapons are still present.»
«We see how the Kaliningrad region becomes an indestructible aircraft carrier of Russia in the region. It has its capabilities, its tactical nuclear weapons, here, next to Lithuania,» he asserted before pointing out that those military personnel who were transferred from the territory to Ukraine for the Russian invasion have already been replaced by other troops mobilized for that purpose.
In this sense, he indicated that this deployment «sometimes threatens Lithuania», with which the territory borders in the north, and affirmed that «the level of threat is varying but not disappearing». «We saw how the contingent in the area decreased because they moved the troops. These troops did not return, but they have been replaced,» he explained, as reported by the Delfi news portal.
While he acknowledged that the threat to Lithuania «is not significant right now as Russia sends its forces to the frontline in Ukraine,» he lamented that there is a need to «prepare for the worst,» referring to the idea that the war will eventually spread beyond Ukraine’s borders.
«If you don’t prepare for the worst, the worst-case scenario will become reality. Now politicians are saying that the Baltic countries were right. Now we will listen to them,» he asserted.
The Lithuanian Defense Ministry plans to send aid of more than two million euros to Ukraine, which will benefit some 25,000 Ukrainian servicemen in the face of the harsh winter.
