Lithuania to take Russia’s threats seriously – Nausėda

June 20, BPN. Lithuania must ensure its own security amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and “defend freedom each day,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has told the parliament in his state-of-the-nation address.

Lithuania received a serious warning when Russia, with the help of Belarus, attacked Ukraine in February 2022, he said. “The unprovoked military aggression against a historically close country has deeply affected each of us,” his press office quoted him as saying.

“The Russian threat to Lithuania and our entire region has not diminished,” Nausėda noted. “On the contrary, we see efforts to amass weapons in [Russia’s] Kaliningrad, we hear of plans to build up forces on NATO’s eastern borders, and nuclear weapons are being deployed in Belarus.”

Lithuanians should “take these challenges seriously and responsibly” and respond accordingly, he added.

Alaksandr Łukašenka said last week that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons “immediately” and without hesitation in response to aggression against his country. On June 13, he said that a part of the Russian nuclear arsenal had been delivered from Russia to Belarus but admitted that the deployment was proceeding at a slow pace and Belarus has not yet received all “bombs and missiles.”

On June 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the first nuclear warheads had arrived in Belarus.

The Belarusian opposition is critical of Russian nuclear plans in Belarus and urges other countries to help prevent the deployment from happening.