Lithuania’s president has initiated a process to remove the constitutional prohibition on stationing weapons of mass destruction, a step that would permit NATO nuclear forces to be deployed on Lithuanian territory for the first time. President Gitanas Nausėda told officials and parliamentary leaders that the geopolitical situation is deteriorating and that the current constitution, drafted under different circumstances, must be amended to prevent the country from becoming a “weak link” or a “grey zone” within the alliance. No plans exist to store nuclear arms in peacetime, according to parliamentary speaker Juozas Olekas, but the change is intended to ensure Lithuania can contribute to NATO’s overall deterrence posture and defend itself against possible aggression.

Viewed from Vilnius, the constitutional amendment is a necessary adaptation to a security environment fundamentally altered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas has argued that Lithuania is practically the only NATO member state that prohibits nuclear weapons, a restriction that prevents the country from fully utilising the alliance’s defence potential. The proposal follows Finland’s earlier decision to lift its own ban on nuclear deployments. For the amendment to pass, at least 94 lawmakers in the 141-seat Seimas must approve it twice, with a three-month interval; the governing coalition currently holds 79 seats, requiring cross-party support.

The Lithuanian debate forms part of a wider recalibration along NATO’s eastern flank. Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have all announced their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines, citing the threat from Russia. In Stockholm, the issue has created an acute dilemma: Swedish soldiers are prohibited from handling such mines, yet Finland, now a NATO ally, wants to use them in its defence. While the right-wing Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals favour leaving the treaty, other parties insist on upholding it, pointing to a UN report that recorded at least 945 deaths and 4,325 injuries from mines in 2024, ninety per cent of them civilians. Ukrainian forces, facing a Russian military that never signed the convention and uses mines indiscriminately, also abandoned the treaty last year.

Against this backdrop of doctrinal hardening, a contrasting appeal has emerged from within Russia. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov and Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Sergey Sokolov have called on Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to declare a local ceasefire to evacuate wounded soldiers and recover bodies from the battlefield. The open letter, published by the outlet designated a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities, notes that drone warfare has made evacuation nearly impossible and that Geneva Convention protections are not being observed. It asks IT companies to provide video monitoring of any truce.

The Lithuanian constitutional amendment is expected to be put to a first parliamentary vote in the coming months. While the defence minister has indicated that any eventual deployment would depend on a positive response from Washington, the initiative signals that Baltic capitals are no longer willing to accept self-imposed legal constraints on the alliance’s nuclear deterrence capabilities.