A chilling blueprint which outlined a ‘lightning-fast’ nuclear strike on Lithuania was published by Russian state media before being quickly removed.

RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-aligned news organisation, released the report this week but quickly took it down without explanation.

Its abrupt withdrawal raises questions over whether it outlined a scenario that could be used by Moscow amid speculation that Putin is both close to deploying nuclear weapons and ready to attack a Western state to test NATO’s resolve.

Highlighting a supposedly quick war in Lithuania, Nosovich insisted: ‘Russia faces another special military operation. It will be very short.’

He highlighted a Lithuanian parliament’s decision to ‘lift the ban on the deployment of [NATO] nuclear weapons in the country’ before adding: ‘France and Britain are no longer hiding plans to station nuclear warheads close to Russia’s borders, and the decisions of Lithuanian politicians are tied to the far-reaching plans of Western Europeans.’

He dismissed Lithuania as ‘a suicidal country with no brains at all’ over the nuclear decision.

Lithuania shares a border with Russia’s heavily militarised Kaliningrad region and with Kremlin-ally Belarus.

Russia has nuclear-capable forces in Kaliningrad and says it has deployed nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Nosovich wrote: ‘It is not even a question of whether it would be long or short. Obviously it would be short: simply because of geography, a military conflict in the Baltic states could not be the same as the one in Ukraine.

‘The question is what means could be used. And since our opponents are the first to move the discussion into the realm of nuclear threats, Russia can even afford to dispense with sending in ground troops.

‘Only missiles with the appropriate warheads. A solution that would be not merely quick, but lightning-fast.’

He failed to mention that such an attack on Lithuania would in all likelihood trigger NATO’s Article 5 on mutual defence with dire consequences for Russia, so risking World War Three.

After the article was removed, a RIA.ru editorial statement said it was withdrawn and replaced initially with a 404 error code.

RIA said the article ‘does not correspond with the editorial board’s position, the outlet’s editorial policy or the state policy of the Russian Federation.’

Dmitry Kiselyov, director-general of Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian state media group that includes RIA Novosti, claimed the publication of the article was a ‘clear technical oversight.’

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