UK sends more troops to Estonia amid Ukraine crisis

Royal Welsh start deploying from bases in Germany and Britain today

The UK is doubling its deployment of troops in Estonia and sending additional tanks and armoured fighting vehicles as the stand-off with Russia over Ukraine continues.

The additional commitment of around 900 troops was agreed by defence secretary Ben Wallace at an emergency meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels to discuss the western response to aggression from Moscow.

Under the banner of Operation Cabrit, some 900 British personnel have since 2016 been deployed on a rotating basis alongside Danish, French and Estonian forces in an exercise to provide an enhanced forward presence in the Baltic country, once part of the Soviet Union but now a Nato member.

The Royal Welsh battlegroup, including armoured vehicles and personnel, will leave Sennelager in Germany and bases in the UK and begin to arrive in Estonia during the coming week.

Meanwhile, Apache helicopters will make their way to conduct exercises with Allied partners in eastern Europe.

Four additional UK Typhoon jets have also landed in Cyprus and will shortly begin to patrol the skies over eastern Europe.

And the warship HMS Diamond is shortly to set sail to join HMS Trent conducting patrols in the eastern Mediterranean, alongside Nato allies from Canada, Italy, Spain and Turkey.

This infographic, created for The Independent by statistics agency Statista, shows the relative military strength of Ukraine and Russia (Statista/The Independent)

Mr Wallace said: “Alongside our Nato allies, we are deploying troops and assets on land, sea and air to bolster European defences in response to the build-up of Russian military forces on the border of Ukraine.

“Nato and our allies have been clear that an invasion of Ukraine will be met with severe consequences.

“De-escalation and diplomacy remain the only path out of this situation.”