Russia threatens use of nuclear weapons over likely NATO expansion

On Thursday the 14th of April, the deputy head of Russia’s safety council and a close acquaintance of the president of Russia Volodymyr Putin, Dmytro Medvedev, stated that Moscow will station nuclear and supersonic missiles in Kaliningrad – Russia’s enclave in the middle of Europe – if Sweden and Finland join NATO. He stated this in his Telegram-channel.

Reacting to Finland and Sweden’s joining of the NATO alliance – which may become the most significant strategic consequences of the war in Ukraine – Medvedev announced that “this means that Russia will have gained more officially registered enemies”.

“If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the alliance’s land borders with Russia will increase more than twice. Naturally, these borders will have to be fortified, greatly increasing the strength of anti-aircraft systems, ground forces and the strength of the naval forces in the gulf of Finland. In such a case, no talks of a non-nuclear Baltic can be had – the balance must be rightened”, - stated the politician, who was the president of Russia between 2008 and 2012.

From Medvedev’s threats it is clear that Russia is considering the possibility of placing strategic weapon systems in the Kaliningrad oblast – Russia’s enclave which borders Lithuania and Poland.

“No sane person wants to increase the stakes, to increase the tension on the ground along the borders, “Iskanders”, supersonics and warships with nuclear weapons an arm’s reach from their own homes. We hope that the sanity of our northern allies triumphs, but if not, then, as they say “he came himself””, - threatened Medvedev.

According to Reuters, the spokesman for the United States Department of State Ned Price, in his answers to the question of how Washington sees the potential joining of Sweden and Finland to NATO in light of Russia’s threats replied that Washington’s stance remains unchanged, and reaffirmed the “NATO open door policy”.

“The expansion of the defence alliance will not create anything other than an increase in stability on the European continent”, - he stated.

The agency reminds that Russia possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, and – with China and the US – is one of the world leaders in the sphere of supersonic missile technology.

We remind that the movement of heavy weapons towards the border with Finland has been noticed in Russian territory. This happened a couple of hours after the Kremlin threatened Helsinki with “consequences” if they chose to join NATO.

Read also:

• "Russia has come here forever": propaganda leaflets are distributed in occupied Energodar

• “Center of escalation”: Zelenskyy considers the battle for Donbas to be the hardest

• They break into people's homes: Russians conduct searches in the occupied village of Priazovsky

• They want revenge for the destruction of the cruiser "Moscow": Ukrainians were warned about Russia's intention to shell Kyiv