Cities on NATO's eastern flank could look like the devastated Ukrainian settlements of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, Ukraine's foreign minister has said, shortly after Sweden became the newest member of the alliance.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to invade Baltic countries that are also NATO members, "you will bravely defend your peoples against an enemy who surpasses you both in terms of experience and capabilities," Dmytro Kuleba told the Lithuanian news agency ELTA in remarks carried by Lithuanian media.
"In the end, I think NATO will win," Kuleba said. "But look at Bakhmut, look at Avdiivka—this is what the Baltic countries will look like after intense combat operations."
The eastern Ukrainian cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka are now under Russian control. Bakhmut was captured in May 2023, and Ukrainian forces withdrew from Avdiivka in mid-February.
Both cities have been devastated by the intense fighting of drawn-out battles.
"This is what your cities will look like. There will be no more beautiful Vilnius," he added, referring to the Lithuanian capital.
Newsweek has reached out to the Lithuanian Foreign ministry for comment via email.
Several NATO states sit on the Baltic Sea, including Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, with the latter also bordering the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Sweden is also located on the Baltic Sea, and became the most recent member of NATO late last week.
NATO has provided tens of billions of dollars' worth of military aid to Ukraine in the more than two years of its war against Russia. But the alliance, and its individual member states, have been clear that NATO is not waging a direct war with Russia.
Under Article 5 of the alliance's treaty, an attack on one member of NATO is considered an attack on all. Ukraine is not a member of the alliance.
Several countries in the alliance have nuclear weapons, including the U.S., France and the United Kingdom, which help deter the prospect of an attack on any NATO state.
In late February, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested it was impossible to rule out sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine. Kyiv's Western backers have long balked at the idea, which would mean a widening of the war outside Ukraine's borders.
It "is not unthinkable" to put NATO boots on the ground, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski then said earlier this week.
Appearing to reference discussions about a future possible NATO presence in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech in late February that Moscow also had "weapons that can strike targets on their territory, and what they are now suggesting and scaring the world with, all that raises the real threat of a nuclear conflict that will mean the destruction of our civilization."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
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