VILNIUS, February 27. /TASS/. Lithuanian Ambassador to Sweden Linas Linkevicius, who previously served as the Baltic state’s foreign minister, threatened that Russia’s western-most Kaliningrad Region risked being "neutralized" against the background of Sweden's accession to NATO.
"After Sweden joined the alliance, the Baltic Sea became internal to NATO. If Russia dares to challenge the North Atlantic Alliance, Kaliningrad will be the first to be neutralized," he wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Just prior to Linkevicius’ statement, the Hungarian parliament formally ratified the agreement approving Sweden's accession to NATO. Hungary became the last country in the 31-member alliance to green-light Stockholm’s membership application. The Hungarian government submitted a bill to parliament on Sweden's accession to NATO in the summer of 2022, but the parliamentarians put it on the shelf, refusing to take action on the legislation prior to yesterday’s vote because of Hungarian displeasure with statements by Swedish politicians seen as unfriendly to Hungary. On March 27, 2023, the Hungarian parliament approved the NATO accession of Finland, which had applied simultaneously with Sweden, but postponed consideration of Stockholm’s request to join the bloc. The two Nordic countries submitted their applications to the North Atlantic Alliance on May 18, 2022, claiming that they were compelled to abandon their traditional neutrality and seek NATO membership due to events in Ukraine.