UK Troops on Standby to Defend NATO Member Estonia From Russia

British military helicopters, heading to Estonia to train alongside NATO allies, leave from Wattisham Flying Station, in Suffolk, England, on April 23, 2024. Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Thousands of British troops will be put on standby to be deployed to Estonia’s border with Russia, as part of a new NATO defence strategy.

The agreement signed by Defence Secretary John Healey and his Estonian counterpart will see the Army’s 4th Brigade put on “high readiness” and could see soldiers sent to NATO’s eastern flank within 10 days of being called up.

NATO operates under the model of collective defence which is enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty, where an attack on one ally is seen as an attack on all members.

The agreement will come into effect in July 2025.

The 4th Brigade, based at Bourlon Barracks in West Yorkshire, are specialists in operating in the Baltic terrain. Some 1,000 British troops are already deployed to Estonia.

Healey said: “As global threats increase, the UK’s unshakeable commitment to Nato has never been more important. We are boosting our support for Estonia, with thousands of troops ready to deploy rapidly to the Russian border.”

He added that the announcement reinforces the UK’s contribution to the alliance, and that the government was working with partners to develop “advanced defensive and offensive capabilities to protect our citizens whilst boosting industry, jobs and growth in the UK.”

New Defence Commitments

Healey travelled to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday for a meeting with defence ministers from the bloc’s member states, where he recommitted the UK to working to bolster Europe’s defences.

The secretary of state agreed to plans to lead the new air defence system, the Diamond (Delivering Integrated Air and Missile Operational Networked Defences) initiative. Diamond will integrate member states’ missile defences as well as see European allies develop new long-range weapons.

“This is part of the UK’s new determination to work more closely with other European allies on security for the future, and Europe’s security is guaranteed by this Nato alliance,” Healey said.

The secretary of state’s remarks regarding European defence comes as the government seeks closer ties with the EU, particularly on security matters.

Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy attended the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war and the escalating crisis in the Middle East.

NATO Meeting

Also present at the NATO defence ministers’ meeting was Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was there to outline his “victory plan” for his country’s war against Russia.

The Ukrainian president unveiled part of his strategy in an address to his parliament on Wednesday, which included plans to formally apply to join NATO and asking for restrictions to be lifted on the use of Western-donated long-range missiles against Russia.

The president admitted, however, “We understand that NATO membership is a matter of the future, not the present.”

Zelenskyy also said three secret addendums to the plan would not be published and would be shared only with NATO and the United States.

So far, Western leaders have not given public support to Zelenskyy’s request to remove the weapons restrictions.

Usage of Western long-range missiles against Russia has remained off-limits over concerns it could escalate tensions between NATO and Moscow. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that allowing such strikes with Western weapons means NATO countries would be “at war with Russia,” which would change the very essence of the conflict.

Support for Ukraine

Despite reservations over allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles against Russia, NATO members including the UK have been giving the eastern European country aide, both in terms of material and training.

Speaking from NATO headquarters, Healey reiterated the UK’s support for Ukraine. He said: “We, as Ukraine’s supporters, must do everything we can to step up our support for Ukraine in the weeks and months ahead, to put more pressure on Russia, to ensure that Ukraine can prevail, because the defence of Europe starts in Ukraine.

“They’re fighting for the same values and same beliefs and same freedoms that we prize and we owe them that duty to stand with them for as long as it takes.”

A report by the spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) from last month said that a total of £7.8 billion in funding has been committed to military support for Ukraine between January 2022 and March 2025.

The NAO also found that training Ukrainian troops had reduced the British armed forces’ capacity to maintain their own training programmes, with over a quarter of the Army’s training estate used in 2023 for Operation Interflex, the UK’s Ukrainian troop training initiative.

A week after the NAO report was published, Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard said that donating military equipment to Ukraine has created “some capability gaps, especially in the British Army,” meaning the UK now needs to backfill its own stock.

PA Media contributed to this report.