Kaliningrad, once known as Königsberg in Prussia, was ceded to the Soviet Union in 1945. Now a Russian exclave, it is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, some 200 miles from the Russian border. It is connected to Russia by a railroad line through Lithuania, which is supposed to permit free transport of goods to and from Russia, according to the international agreements concerning Lithuania’s accession to the European Union.
Lithuania has announced that it will now ban transport of coal, metals, construction materials, and advanced technology, as enforcement of EU sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine. Russia declares that the ban is illegal.
Russia has been heavily fortifying Kaliningrad with missiles and air defenses, but the Pentagon allegedly has a plan for destroying them, according to a September 2019 statement by a top U.S. commander.
Chilean-American commentator Gonzalo Lira, speaking from Kharkov, Ukraine, warns of the potential for the situation to escalate to a European ground war between Russia and NATO (primarily U.S.) troops if Russia resists the ban, since the railroad runs through NATO territory.
In Lira’s view, use of strategic nuclear weapons is a grave danger if that occurs.
“Kaliningrad seems to be the most likely trigger point in the world for nuclear war,” states Physicians for Civil Defense president Jane Orient, M.D. “Americans need to alert public officials to the existential threat of escalating the war in Ukraine.”
“U.S. policy of Mutual Assured Destruction has assured that the U.S. has no anti-missile defense against an all-out attack, and civil defense is primarily for continuity of government,” she added. “For ordinary citizens, response to an attack is do-it-yourself, but even this could save millions of lives if people learned what to do.”
Physicians for Civil Defense provides information to help save lives in the event of natural or man-made disasters.