That statement is almost crazy. I don't think this needs to be seriously considered" - TASS on May 20 quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The Kaliningrad region is a separate territory of Russia, with more than 1 million people, located along the Baltic Sea, bordering Lithuania to the north and Poland to the south. The countries bordering Kaliningrad are all NATO member states.
Previously, in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung on May 18, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that NATO should attack Russia's Kaliningrad overseas territory to send a message to Moscow.
Mr. Budrys affirmed that Europeans "need to turn fear of threats into a mindset of self-autonomy".
We must show the Russians that we can penetrate the small fortress they built in Kaliningrad," the Lithuanian diplomat said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister said that "NATO has the ability to flatten Russia's air defense systems and missile bases there in an emergency situation".
At the end of 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that any action by the West against Kaliningrad, including the possibility of blockading this territory, "will lead to an unprecedented escalation, bringing the situation to a completely different level, even a large-scale armed conflict".
Referring to the incidents of Ukrainian drones entering Lithuanian airspace when targeting northwestern Russia, Mr. Budrys shared, "it is clear that we lack air defense systems" and called on NATO to overcome this problem.
Lithuania is a republic of the former Soviet Union. This country has a border of about 250km with Russia's Kaliningrad region and is deploying mines in the border area within the framework of a large-scale defense program worth 1 billion euros.
