Russia warns of nuclear weapons in Baltic if Sweden and Finland join Nato

Moscow has said it will be forced to strengthen its defences in the Baltic if Finland and Sweden join Nato, including by deploying nuclear weapons, as the war in Ukraine entered its seventh week and the country braced for a major attack in the east.

However, the Lithuanian defence minister, Arvydas Anu¨auskas, claimed on Thursday that Russia already had nuclear weapons stored in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Lithuania and Poland. That claim has not been independently verified but the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) reported in 2018 that nuclear weapon storage bunkers in Kaliningrad had been upgraded.

Russia borders the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

The deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, said on Thursday that Russia was massing forces along the Russia-Ukraine border, in Belarus and in the breakaway Transdniestria region of Moldova, with the eastern cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia coming under missile attack.

Moldova accused the Russian army of trying to recruit its citizens, after British military intelligence said Moscow was attempting to enlist fighters in Transdniestria, a narrow strip of land held by pro-Russia separatists that is within about 25 miles of the Ukrainian port of Odesa.

Russia claimed on Wednesday that more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered in the city, which has been largely reduced to rubble by a six-week bombardment that has killed more than 21,000 people, according to the mayor.