Medvedev threatens to wipe Lithuania off the map over nuclear weapons plan
Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev has threatened that Russia would erase Lithuania from the world map if nuclear weapons were deployed there, claiming NATO would not invoke Article 5. The threats follow a Lithuanian parliamentary committee's backing of an initiative to lift the constitutional ban on hosting nuclear arms.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, issued fresh threats against Lithuania while visiting Russia's Northwestern Federal District, which borders the Baltic state. His remarks were cited by Russian state propaganda media.
Medvedev claimed that if nuclear weapons were ever deployed on Lithuanian territory, Russia would "wipe Lithuania off the world map." He also asserted that NATO allies would not dare invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on collective defense, arguing that doing so would trigger a "global, planetary catastrophe." According to Medvedev, no other country would go to war for Lithuania, even if the country were left as a "scorched field."
Background
The Russian official's statement comes in response to a constitutional initiative in Vilnius aimed at repealing the provision banning nuclear weapons on Lithuanian territory. In June 2026, Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said Vilnius was negotiating with the United States over the possible deployment of American nuclear weapons in the Baltic country. In early July, Lithuania's Seimas began the procedure to repeal Article 137 of the Constitution, which prohibits stationing foreign military bases and nuclear weapons on Lithuanian soil. On September 9, the Seimas Committee on Law and Order backed the initiative.
Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas has argued that the current ban no longer reflects geopolitical realities and makes Lithuania a "white crow" among NATO allies on the question of deterring Russian aggression.
On September 11, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov threatened Vilnius, saying that deploying nuclear weapons would put Lithuania within range of Russian nuclear arms. Shortly afterward, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Russia had "never threatened" Europeans and that reports of Moscow's threats were fabricated.
