Lithuania's Parliament Backs First Step to Lift Nuclear Ban

Lithuania's parliament voted 106-18, with six abstentions, on October 6 to approve the first reading of a constitutional amendment that would remove the country's decades-old ban on hosting nuclear weapons and foreign military bases, setting up a final vote for January 12, 2027.²⁶⁷

A Soviet-era provision under review

Lithuania's constitution, under Article 137, has for more than three decades forbidden both weapons of mass destruction and foreign military installations on its soil, a restriction dating back to the country's independence from Soviet rule.⁵⁶³¹

To amend the constitution, lawmakers must pass two separate ballots spaced a minimum of three months apart, with each requiring support from no fewer than 94 of the Seimas's 141 members. The first ballot passed with 106 in favour, 18 against and six abstentions, according to TASS; Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said the second and final vote is scheduled for January 12.⁶²⁷⁵

Olekas contended that the amendment would bring Lithuania into line with its fellow EU and NATO members. He said scrapping the provision would allow Lithuania to obtain the broadest possible backing. doing away with the legal disparities separating Lithuania from other EU and NATO states would erase those gaps and put the country on equal standing with them, he said.²

Security concerns and a proposed US base

Lithuania, an EU and NATO member bordering Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus, has been among Kyiv's most consistent backers since Russia invaded Ukraine. President Gitanas Nauseda cited a deteriorating regional security picture in July when discussing the push for constitutional change. "The geopolitical situation is getting worse… Our constitution was written when geopolitical circumstances were totally different," he said.³²

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas linked the amendment directly to Moscow's actions: "We are responding to Russia's aggression. he suggested the current debate likely would not be happening had Russia not launched its invasion of Ukraine. Vilnius is separately seeking an American military base on its soil, a request Donald Trump has said he would weigh.²⁶⁴

Since 2019 the US has stationed an armored battalion in Lithuania on a rotating basis, swapping troops every few months, and the country also hosts a NATO multinational force that includes a growing permanent German contingent. The Baltic states joined NATO in 2004.⁴⁵

Kremlin warnings

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any move to bring nuclear weapons or NATO military infrastructure, including a possible US base, closer to Russia's borders would amount to escalation. Peskov observed that a military base forms part of military infrastructure. he said that the approach of a major NATO member's military infrastructure toward Russia's borders could only be seen as escalatory, and that the same reasoning applied to placing nuclear weapons in a neighboring country.²⁴

Peskov indicated Moscow would have no choice but to adopt whatever steps were needed to safeguard its security, and he separately characterized the potential deployment as yet another serious escalation. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, went further still, cautioning that Lithuania would vanish from the world map and that nobody would come to its aid if Russia felt forced to respond. Russia has never fully accepted NATO's expansion into the former Soviet sphere, according to Bullsource, and believes earlier assurances on that expansion were broken.³²⁷⁴

Russia has in recent years deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad and nuclear weapons, including the Oreshnik intermediate-range missile, to Belarus, which saw its first combat use in Ukraine. Russia and Belarus staged a combined nuclear exercise together in May 2026, and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has continued to affirm his close ties to Moscow.¹²

A wider Baltic and Nordic pattern

Lithuania's step echoes an earlier one taken by Finland, which ended decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023 and then, in 2026, repealed its own legal ban on nuclear weapons, with that change effective July 1. Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen called the reform historic, saying it reinforces security for both Finland and the broader alliance, while Helsinki made clear the shift does not signal any intention to obtain or house nuclear arms, nor does NATO plan to deploy them there.¹

Unlike Lithuania, neighbouring Latvia and Estonia have no restrictions on nuclear weapons, according to Euronews. Lithuanian lawmaker Remigijus Motuzas said his country should not have less protection than fellow NATO members. he said Lithuania needed to show it is fully embedded in NATO's nuclear deterrence, noting that such deterrence is a component of the alliance's collective defense. Euronews reported that ten countries have signed on to a French-led forward deterrence initiative as France considers broadening its nuclear deterrence role across Europe.¹