Kremlin spokesman says Lithuania would be ‘in the crosshairs of our nuclear weapons’ if it deploys a nuclear arsenal on its own territory
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said Russia would aim its nuclear weapons at Lithuania if the country deploys nuclear arsenals on its own territory, speaking in an interview with the Russian state-controlled television channel Channel One.
“Obviously, these weapons will not be aimed westward: they will be aimed eastward, that is, at us,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax.
And if there is nuclear weaponry on that territory aimed at us, then that country’s territory will also be in the crosshairs of our nuclear weapons.
Peskov called that scenario “a very serious round of escalation and tension.”
Lithuanian authorities confirmed in June 2026 that they were negotiating the deployment of nuclear weapons on their territory. The British newspaper the Financial Times reported that the talks involve American bombers capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Lithuania’s current constitution bans deploying weapons of mass destruction or hosting foreign military bases in the country, and Lithuanian authorities said they are ready to begin discussing amendments to lift that ban.
Under a 1997 agreement between Russia and NATO, the North Atlantic Alliance pledged it has “no intention, no plan and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members.”
After the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine began, Moscow deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
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