Lithuania Moves Closer Toward Scrapping Nuclear Weapons Ban

Lithuania moved closer toward lifting its long-standing nuclear weapons ban on Tuesday, Oct. 6, after the amendment passed its first reading with 106-18 votes in favor.The country’s Constitution currently prohibits weapons of mass destruction and foreign military bases, including NATO’s, to be stationed on its territory. However, a final vote – scheduled for Jan. 12, 2027 – could remove that provision.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.According to Lithuanian news outlet LRT, Lithuania’s Constitution can only be changed through two votes held at least three months apart, each requiring a qualified majority of 94 in the 141-seat chamber.“We will ensure stronger support that could be available to us,” Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said. “By addressing the legal exceptions that Lithuania had compared with other EU and NATO countries, they will be gone and we will be equal.”The resistance was led by a populist party Nemunas Dawn, with 14 of its members voting no and two abstaining.The remaining opposition votes came from three members of the mixed parliamentary group and one lawmaker from the Farmers and Greens Union and Christian Families Alliance.Moscow responds with escalation warningThe Kremlin promptly responded to the move.Asked about the vote alongside reports that Washington is weighing a permanent US base in Lithuania, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would treat either development as escalatory.“A military base is part of military infrastructure. If someone’s military infrastructure – in fact, that of a major NATO member – is approaching our borders, of course, this can only be viewed as a step toward escalation,” he said, according to LRT. Other Topics of Interest Rubio Calls on Russia to Clarify Suspected Plague Case Washington is monitoring the death of a Russian lab worker as nearly 200 people reportedly face observation, while Moscow has not confirmed the origins. “The same applies to the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of a neighbouring country.”Peskov’s remarks appeared to be milder than earlier warnings by Russian authorities, although he reiterated previous threats that Russia will have to take “all necessary measures to guarantee its security.”Russia’s former President and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, threatened Lithuania by saying the country would “disappear from the map of the world” should it lift its nuclear weapons ban.“If God forbid, something like this happens and we have to react to their actions, no one will step in for them,” Medvedev said, adding that NATO would not invoke Article 5 as this would mean “a global catastrophe.”Medvedev made the remarks on Sept. 11, after Peskov had already threatened Vilnius with nuclear weapons earlier on that same day.Why Vilnius wants the provision goneArticle 137, part of the Constitution approved by referendum in 1992, rules out both weapons of mass destruction and foreign military bases on Lithuanian soil.The lifting of the ban would essentially allow NATO, of which Lithuania has been a member of since 2004, to deploy nuclear forces on its territory.Although Lithuanian authorities insist no nuclear weapons are headed to its territory for now, they point to the need to change the constitution due to uncertain geopolitical circumstances.The discussions over the possible ban gained traction in July. “The geopolitical situation is getting ​worse… Our constitution was written when geopolitical circumstances were totally different,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said.Lithuania - among Ukraine’s strongest allies in Europe – borders both Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad and the Kremlin’s ally Belarus.Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas pointed to both countries on Tuesday again. “We are responding to Russia’s aggression,” he said. “If Russia had not started the war in Ukraine, we probably would not be having the discussions we are having today.”In June 2023, Russia began deploying nuclear weapons to previously non-nuclear Belarus. Russia also deployed its nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) to the country, whose combat use in Ukraine marked the first combat use of its kind in history.Russia and Belarus conducted a joint nuclear war drill in May, 2026.On Oct. 3, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko reaffirmed Minsk’s alignment with Moscow, pledging that his country will execute Kremlin decisions and preserve a unified fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok.He also joked that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin often debate who is the greater “co-aggressor” in Ukraine, despite Belarus aiming to portray itself as neutral in the war.Meanwhile, Russia deployed its Iskander tactical missiles to Kaliningrad – its only ice-free port on the Baltic, which happens to host the headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet.NATO has long been concerned that Russia could station non-strategic nuclear weapons in the exclave, and the latest Kremlin’s escalatory rhetoric had raised additional fears that Moscow could be searching for a justification for a direct attack on the Baltic States.Although NATO did not provoke Russia, the Kremlin said it was ready to use its entire arsenal of weapons to defend Kaliningrad should the alliance try to block the region.Around the same time, Russia has also accused the alliance of a reckless course carrying a high risk of direct armed conflict and threatened to strike “decision-making centers” in member countries. 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