Russia has said it will target its nuclear arsenal at a NATO member — Estonia — if nuclear weapons are stationed in the Baltic country. Simultaneously, Moscow has added that it doesn't threaten the country, Newsweek reports.
At present, there are no public plans to move nuclear weapons to Estonian territory, although some European allies of the Alliance are reviewing parameters for nuclear infrastructure deployment on the continent amid debates over security guarantees from the US.
Meanwhile, Russia has deployed a nuclear-capable Oreshnik intercontinental ballistic missile system to Belarus, which can reach any European city within minutes. It is almost impossible to intercept, and it has six warheads that fall on targets separately.
Tallinn’s position on potential nuclear deployment and historical context
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna says that Tallinn may be ready in the future to consider hosting nuclear weapons on its territory. At the same time, Estonia hosted Soviet nuclear facilities until the collapse of the USSR, but after the end of the Cold War, much of this infrastructure was dismantled.
Since 1992, Tallinn has been a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Kremlin response: rhetoric of "no threats" and direct nuclear signaling
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says, “If there are nuclear weapons on Estonian territory aimed at us, then our nuclear weapons will be aimed at Estonian territory.”
He adds that Russia “is not threatening” Estonia, a formulation that contrasts with the explicit statement about targeting.
NATO’s eastern flank and debates in Poland over nuclear deterrence
Debates on nuclear deterrence have also intensified in Poland.
Former president Andrzej Duda said in 2024 that the country was ready to host US tactical nuclear weapons.
These are sub-strategic munitions intended for battlefield use, with lower yields than those of strategic systems such as intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Europe’s nuclear architecture: existing deployments and the Belarus example
US tactical nuclear weapons are already deployed in several European countries, including Germany and Italy. In 2023, Russia confirmed the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, heightening tensions on NATO’s eastern flank.
Read also
-
Ukraine strikes heart of Russia’s nuclear blackmail — hitting Oreshnik launch site with domestic FP-5 cruise missiles
-
Oreshnik missile lands near Ukraine-Poland border—now Warsaw weighs nukes
-
Russia used Belarus’s cell towers to bomb Ukrainian power plants. Then hackers got inside the operators’ chatrooms
