NATO Responds to Russian Warning Over Kaliningrad, Condemns ‘Irresponsible Nuclear Rhetoric’

NATO has responded to the Kremlin’s yesterday warning that Moscow was ready to use its entire arsenal of weapons to defend Kaliningrad should the alliance try to block the region. NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said that the alliance responded to Russia’s informal diplomatic document. A military source separately confirmed to Rapporteur, formerly known as Euractiv, that the document concerned Kaliningrad.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “Russia’s use of hybrid tactics is a sign of desperation. But we will not be dissuaded from our support to Ukraine,” Hart said, adding that “we [NATO] have what it takes to defend every inch of allied territory and remain strong, ready, and able to counter any threat.” She reiterated that NATO is exclusively a defensive alliance and that none of its exercises or other activities pose a risk to any part of Russia, while also condemning the “threat of force, including any irresponsible nuclear rhetoric.” Why Kaliningrad matters The exclave is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, both EU and NATO members, making it a persistent security concern for the alliance. Roughly 360 kilometers (224 miles) from the Russian mainland, it has no land connection to the rest of Russia and is linked to it only by sea. The territory was once the German city of Königsberg, capital of East Prussia. The Soviet Union took it at the end of World War II, expelled its German population and renamed it in 1946. Other Topics of Interest WATCH: Six Tu-95 Crew Members Reported Dead in Russia’s Amur Region Plane Crash Initial reports claimed it was a Tu-154 transport plane before Russia’s defense ministry confirmed it was a Tu-95 bomber. As a key military installation on the Baltic, the city and its port were closed to foreigners throughout the Soviet era. That changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which left Kaliningrad physically cut off from Russia once Lithuania regained independence. Moscow then sought to open the region up economically, turning it into a free-trade zone in 1992 and a special economic zone in 1996 with privileges for foreign investors, according to AFP. Its value to Moscow now remains mostly military, according to the International Crisis Group. Kaliningrad is Russia’s only ice-free port on the Baltic and hosts the headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Russia has also deployed Iskander tactical missiles there, with a range of about 500 kilometers (310 miles), US Naval Institute reported. Meanwhile, NATO has long been concerned that Russia could station non-strategic nuclear weapons in the exclave as well. For NATO, the bigger worry remains the Suwałki Gap, a stretch of the Polish-Lithuanian border roughly 65 kilometers (40 miles) long that separates Kaliningrad from Belarus – one of Russia’s closest allies. Despite portraying itself as neutral in the war, Belarus supplies Russia with components needed for weapons-making, while also providing the territory from which Russia launches some attacks on Ukraine. Should a direct conflict emerge, Russian forces pushing from Belarus and Kaliningrad could try to seize the corridor and cut the Baltic states off from allied reinforcements. The Crisis Group warns that Russia’s Baltic Fleet, missiles, air defenses and ground forces in Kaliningrad could also be used to deny NATO access to the Baltic Sea and disrupt air operations. At the same time, the exclave’s position leaves it exposed. With Finland and Sweden joining NATO in 2023 and 2024, the Baltic Sea is now almost entirely surrounded by alliance members, apart from Kaliningrad and Russia’s own coastline near St. Petersburg. In June 2022, Lithuania halted the rail transit of steel and other EU-sanctioned goods to the exclave, a move Moscow branded a “blockade” and threatened to answer, according to LRT. Vilnius insisted it was only enforcing EU sanctions, but the standoff eased the following month when the European Commission ruled that sanctioned goods, except weapons, could continue to cross Lithuania by rail. At the time, analysts warned that Russia’s framing of the restrictions as a blockade, a term with military connotations, could be used to justify military action. Moscow’s latest threat In its statement, the Russian embassy said it had delivered its position to NATO’s International Secretariat and to Belgium’s Foreign Ministry, accusing the alliance and its members of pursuing an “aggressive policy.” “We emphasized that Russia possesses the necessary means to repel potential aggression and stands ready to deploy its entire available arsenal of weapons if NATO countries try to isolate the Kaliningrad Region from the rest of our country,” the statement read. The embassy urged NATO members to refrain from “further escalatory rhetoric and actions in order to prevent a large-scale confrontation,” without specifying which actions had prompted the warning. The warning marks the latest in a string of threats from senior Russian officials aimed at Ukraine’s Western allies, raising fears that the Kremlin may be searching for a possible justification for a direct attack on the Baltic states. Dmitry Medvedev, former president and current deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, claimed Sept. 11 that Lithuania would “disappear from the map of the world” if it lifts its longstanding nuclear weapons ban. He also claimed NATO would not invoke Article 5 to defend the country as that would mean a “global catastrophe.” The Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, for his part, has dismissed European warnings about a Russian threat as deliberate escalation and “provocation,” insisting that Moscow has no real incentive to attack Europe. Moments later, during his broader remarks on Friday, Sept. 25, he turned to a long-standing Kremlin grievance: the treatment of Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic states, which the Kremlin also used to justify launching the full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Around the same time, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia could directly attack another European country, as Moscow seeks to fracture Western unity and distract from its battlefield losses. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, turned the argument around. At his final press conference at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, he said that European calls to prepare for a possible war with Russia could become a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”