The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that Lithuania’s decision to lift its constitutional ban on the deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory could lead to a new round of escalation in the region.
Lithuania’s parliament voted in favor of lifting the ban on Tuesday, in the first of two votes required to amend the constitution, foreign media reported, as cited by Telegrafi.
Asked by reporters how Russia viewed the development, as well as a proposal made by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month to build a U.S. military base in the Baltic country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “If the military infrastructure of what is, in fact, NATO’s main country (the United States) is moving closer to our borders, then, naturally, this cannot be viewed as anything other than a step toward escalating tensions.”
He added: “The same applies to the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of a neighboring state. Neither of these developments will contribute to stability and predictability on the European continent; on the contrary, much to our regret, they will mark another significant escalation of tensions.”
Lithuania, an EU and NATO member, borders Russia and Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.
The United States has maintained an armored battalion of nearly 1,000 troops in Lithuania since 2019, with overlapping rotations, meaning troops arrive and leave every few months.
The constitutional amendment concerning the nuclear weapons ban which requires a two-thirds majority in two parliamentary votes to take effect aims to remove restrictions introduced more than three decades ago, after Lithuania broke away from the Soviet Union.
