KALININGRAD, February 6. /TASS/. The European Union and the United States will not defend Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in the event of a conflict with Russia. Alexander Yaroshuk, a member of the Federation Council’s Committee on Defense and Security, expressed this viewpoint to TASS, commenting on Lithuanian Rear Admiral Giedrius Premeneckas's recent statement that Russia would lose Kaliningrad if confronted by NATO.

Earlier reports indicated that Rear Admiral Premeneckas, Chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces’ Defense Staff, claimed that "in the event of a conflict with NATO, Russia will be left without Kaliningrad and its surrounding areas," suggesting that the region could fall "under Western control."

Yaroshuk responded sharply: "The era of trading Russophobia for favors from their Western masters is over. They’re no longer being paid for it; their usefulness has run out. To that rear admiral I say - he probably knows this already, but I want to emphasize it again: the EU and the US, if anything happens, will not fight for Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia. They won’t even lift a finger for Poland. All this talk is empty posturing. We shouldn’t take it seriously. Once the dust settles, they’ll be the first to come crawling back, professing friendship and claiming it was just a temporary lapse."

Additionally, Yevgeny Mishin, a member of the Kaliningrad Regional Legislative Assembly and deputy chairman of the committee on international and interregional relations, security, and law and order, noted that the rhetoric from Baltic and other European countries toward Russia has become increasingly provocative. This is especially evident in their attempts to expand the so-called contiguous maritime zone in the Baltic Sea - an apparent effort by the EU to assert control over Russian merchant shipping in the region.

Meanwhile, Airbus CEO Rene Obermann has called for the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, citing the need to counteract defense systems in the Kaliningrad Region. Moscow has repeatedly reaffirmed that Kaliningrad is an integral part of Russia and has pledged to take all necessary measures to defend the region.