On July 17th, local time, the Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma (lower house of Parliament) Sergei Slutsky responded to comments from U.S. officials, stating:
The attack on Kaliningrad Oblast by NATO will lead Russia to take countermeasures including nuclear weapons.
On the same day, the Defense and Security Committee member of the Federation Council (upper house of Parliament), Dmitry Muratov, also stated that:
NATO must understand that any attack on Russian territory will bring extremely serious consequences.
In an interview on the 17th, Slutsky mentioned that an attack on Kaliningrad would mean an attack on Russia and would trigger all retaliatory measures, including the use of nuclear weapons, by Russia. The United States must clearly recognize this point rather than making such statements carelessly. He also pointed out that the idea of launching an attack on Kaliningrad is “a plan to trigger a third world war and evolve into global confrontation, where there will be no victors.” “NATO currently poses a threat to world security and stability.”
Muratov also stated on the same day that Kaliningrad is Russia’s territory, and the threat of attacking it essentially amounts to a declaration of war. He also mentioned that the response to attacks on Russian territory would be much stronger than the response to actions by the Russian armed forces in Ukraine.
On the 16th, a senior U.S. officer at the first European Army Conference held in Weiden, Germany, claimed that Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast is surrounded by NATO members, and now NATO has the capability to remove it from the map at unprecedented speed, faster than ever before.
Kaliningrad Oblast is a Russian enclave, bordering Poland to the south, with its northeast and east bordering Lithuania, and its west facing the Baltic Sea. (CCTV Reporter Wang Xinjun)