OREANDA-NEWS Russia may lose the Kaliningrad Region in the event of an armed conflict with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This statement was made by the Chief of the Lithuanian Army Defense Staff, Rear Admiral Giedrus Premenetskas, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

"It would be a dilemma for Russia to hold Kaliningrad, and NATO should make it very clear that in this case it will lose Kaliningrad," said the Chief of Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

Premenetskas commented on the hypothetical scenario of an armed conflict between Russia and the countries of the alliance and stated that Vilnius was able to contain Russian troops on its own. According to him, the forces available to the Lithuanian Armed Forces — 17,000 people in peacetime and 58,000 after immediate mobilization — may be enough to contain a limited contingent of the Russian Armed Forces.

Earlier, Lithuania's National Security Adviser Deivydas Matulionis spoke about the republic's preparations in case of an invasion. The adviser pointed out that the Lithuanian armed forces would fight until the allied forces arrived in case of an enemy invasion of the country.