"The answer would definitely be.And not only economic or political, it would probably also be military.All the tools are on the US side and they would execute that response, if there was any.Nuclear deterrence works, but it relies primarily on US forces.And what that response will be, again, quite a theoretical thing and I, unfortunately, can't really say because I don't know.This is primarily the result of the direct talks between the USA and Russia," said D. Matulionis on the "Lietuvos ryto" TV show "Lietuvas rytos".True, the ambassador reassured that there are no indications so far that allow us to assume that Russia is planning to use a nuclear weapon.A completely different stage would begin in hostilitiesA train sighting in central Russia a few days ago sparked speculation about a nuclear escalation in the war in Ukraine.According to Konrad Muzyka, a Polish defense expert, this train is linked to a unit of the Russian Ministry of Defense that is responsible for storing, transporting and issuing nuclear munitions.The information came as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top officials signaled that Russia would use all its weapons to defend its territory, which the Kremlin says now includes much of eastern Ukraine, although the annexation of the occupied territories is largely unrecognized."I want to reassure the public that, in reality, there are not even the slightest indications of readiness to take any concrete actions.This I can confirm and this is the conclusion of all the services here.Especially the US, which has far better capabilities.It was made clear - if there is even the slightest indication, we will all be informed immediately.There are no such indications today.Of course, people are very afraid that if a nuclear weapon were used, it would be a strategic change in the world.This would mean a completely different stage in hostilities.Accordingly, the reaction of the West would be completely different than it has been so far," the Lithuanian ambassador to NATO assured.Although the West does not specifically say what the response would be if Russia resorted to nuclear weapons as the last straw, D. Matulionis indicated that it would most likely be a military one."Most likely, a meeting of the North Atlantic Council or a meeting of NATO defense ministers would be called immediately, scenarios would be presented and a possible response would be discussed."It would not be a US response alone, but a coordinated NATO response.But again, I want to emphasize that it is the USA that has all the capabilities in this case and the opportunity to respond properly," the interviewer emphasized.If the situation in Belarus were to escalate, would we get more troops?In addition, rumors spread about Russia's intentions to again intensively attack the northern part of Ukraine from the territory of Belarus.The Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine claims that Belarus is preparing to receive up to 20,000Russian soldiers.According to the Belarusian opposition member Pavel Latuska, the head of Belarus Aliaksandrs Lukashenka started the modernization of the railways so that Belarus would have the opportunity to deploy up to 120,000 soldiers in November-December.mobilized Russian soldiers.The Ambassador of Lithuania to NATO pointed out that there is currently a lot of unconfirmed information circulating in the media, so it is difficult to grasp what is true, but confirmed data about Russia's intentions to deploy over 100,000 troops in Belarus.NATO does not have soldiers."We do not have such confirmed information about the deployment of some new Russian forces in Belarus.In fact, if that information is confirmed, there will be corresponding reactions," he warned.D. Matulionis did not rule out that if V. Putin puts pressure on A. Lukashenka, we could probably see a scenario similar to the one at the beginning of the war, when Russia invaded Ukraine from the territory of Belarus.So far, NATO does not see any signs that Belarusian soldiers could be involved in hostilities.What actions would the Alliance take if the information were confirmed and over 100,000 people appeared in Lithuania's neighbor?Russian soldiers?"I think there would be a lot more troops from the NATO alliance on the Eastern flank, starting with, say, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.Perhaps the so-called vigilance level would be raised, perhaps some other additional measures.But to this day, we do not feel a direct threat to the Alliance states and Lithuania.She's gone.Everything is focused on the territory of Ukraine.If something were to change, there would be concrete actions - both our intelligence and the military are monitoring the situation very closely," explained the Lithuanian ambassador to NATO.He indicated that NATO's rapid reaction force on the Eastern flank of the Alliance currently consists of up to 40,000.soldiers, however, if there were signs of an escalation of the situation, additional capabilities would be activated.Will mobilization make a difference?Evaluating the announced partial mobilization in Russia, D. Matulionis emphasized that there had been discussions within NATO for some time that V. Putin would have to take this measure, so it was not very surprising."In any case, the mobilization is considered quite reserved for now.It is believed that the process is actually completely chaotic.There is more propaganda than real change on the front.For now, we do not notice that this could have a qualitative change on the front, during the war with Ukraine", said the Lithuanian ambassador to NATO.According to him, it is difficult to say how many Russian citizens will actually be mobilized, but it is already clear that they will not change the course of the war in the short term."In the longer term, again, we see that there are a number of issues that are being faced."They are more of a logistical nature - both in providing soldiers with weapons and, respectively, all boys or men under the age of 60, they are not trained to fight.Logistical provision - uniforms, food rations, medicines - is a huge logistical problem that Russia is obviously facing," commented D. Matulionis."For today, even in the longer term, we would not see a change."The only thing is if Russia somehow achieves a so-called strategic pause in hostilities.This would mean that they would be able to deal with the real situation a bit and start new actions again with new strength.But today there are no such signs, and at the moment Ukraine has the tactical initiative, which must do everything to push the Russian forces out of the occupied territories," he stated.UAB "Lrytas", Gedimino 12A, LT-01103, Vilnius.Int.code: 300781534 Registered in the enterprise register of the Republic of Lithuania, administrator of the register: State enterprise Registru centraslrytas.lt editorial news@lrytas.lt Notifications about technical problems webmaster@lrytas.ltDownload the lrytas.lt mobile app