Russia would use its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to stop Nato cutting Kaliningrad off from the rest of the country, the Russian embassy in Ireland said in a statement carried by TASS on September 29.

The embassy said it had learned that the alliance was preparing an air and sea blockade of the Baltic exclave, but did not say where the information came from in the latest of warring words between Western governments and Moscow.

“Information has emerged that Nato is preparing an air and sea blockade of Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region. This is not an invention but a matter of serious concern to Russia. The irresponsible and short-sighted European political elite is playing a dangerous game,” the embassy said.

“There should be no doubt that Russia will be ready to use its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to defend its territory if Nato countries try to isolate the Kaliningrad region from the rest of the country. In such a scenario the risk of an armed clash is high, with the likelihood of Russia delivering pre-emptive strikes on decision-making centres in alliance countries at an early stage of the conflict,” it added, calling the issue “extremely serious” and urging Europe to treat it that way.

The Dublin statement was the third Russian warning of its kind from a European capital in two days, and it came from an embassy in a country that is not a Nato member. Taken together, the statements put in writing a threat of early strikes on alliance decision-making centres if the exclave is cut off.

On September 28, Russia’s embassy in Belgium delivered its own warning to Nato’s International Secretariat and the Belgian foreign ministry, saying Moscow “stands ready to deploy its entire available arsenal of weapons if Nato countries try to isolate the Kaliningrad region”, Kyiv Post reported. The embassy in London followed a day later, saying any military action by the UK or Nato against Russian territory would be met with all the means Russia has, nuclear weapons included, United24 Media reported.

The London statement answered British media coverage of Kaliningrad’s vulnerability in a war between Russia and Nato, including a Sky News docudrama about a hypothetical strike on the exclave. Nato has announced no plan to blockade it.

Nato spokesperson Allison Hart rejected the warnings. “We strongly denounce the threat of force, including any irresponsible nuclear rhetoric,” she said, adding that the alliance has “what it takes to defend every inch of allied territory”. “Russia’s use of hybrid tactics is a sign of desperation. But we will not be dissuaded from our support to Ukraine,” Hart said.

The Dublin embassy cast the Russian threat as a slogan that Western media repeat daily in order to justify higher defence spending, the further militarisation of Europe and continued financial, military and political support for Kyiv.

Kaliningrad lies between Poland and Lithuania, about 360 km from mainland Russia. It hosts the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet and Russia’s only ice-free port on the Baltic, and Russia has nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile systems deployed there.

Moscow first used the word “blockade” about the exclave in June 2022, when Lithuania stopped EU-sanctioned goods moving to it by rail and Russia demanded an end to the transit restrictions. Brussels said at the time that Vilnius had acted “by the book” and that no blockade was in place.

The warnings come as Lithuania moves to delete its constitutional ban on nuclear weapons. Its parliament backed the change 99-13 at first reading on September 22, with two more votes due on October 6 and January 12. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 11 that any country hosting nuclear weapons aimed at Russia would itself be in the crosshairs of Russia’s nuclear forces.

Moscow and Washington have had no strategic arms control treaty since New START lapsed in February.