More than 800 British personnel are currently stationed in Estonia as part of Nato’s enhanced forward presence (eFP) in a bid to deter Russian aggression.
A senior UK officer said the deployment of British troops to the Baltic state shows Nato is a “very capable force” that is ready to deal with a raft of threats.
Armoured vehicles in the snow at a training area near Tapa in Estonia, as 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh take part in Exercise Winter Camp (Joe Giddens/PA)
More than 800 British personnel are currently stationed in the Baltic state as part of Nato’s enhanced forward presence (eFP) (Joe Giddens/PA)
The soldiers are there alongside Danish, Canadian and Estonian forces (Joe Giddens/PA)
The British Army is providing the bulk of the numbers through the armoured infantry task force of the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh (Joe Giddens/PA)
They are based more than 80 miles from the Russian border in the town of Tapa (Joe Giddens/PA)
Taking a central role in the eFP, the Senior Major of The Royal Welsh, Darren Hughes, said his troops are aware of why they are in Estonia (Joe Giddens/PA)
Darren Hughes said they are there ‘to show to any potential aggressor that as a force, Nato is very capable and is prepared to deal with a whole raft of threats’ (Joe Giddens/PA)
The eFP is a deployment of defensive, but combat-capable forces in countries which includes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (Joe Giddens/PA)
There are four multinational battle groups across the region, led by Britain, Canada, Germany and the United States, which aim to deter any potential Russian aggression (Joe Giddens/PA)
Fusilier Lee Hilmer-Hills, from Pembrokeshire, of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, at the training area near Tapa in Estonia (Joe Giddens/PA)
A soldier looks out from a snow-covered trench during Exercise Winter Camp (Joe Giddens/PA)
A tank at the training area, where British troops are ‘standing ready’ to defend against a potentially aggressive Russia alongside Nato allies (Joe Giddens/PA)
Soldiers from A Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, watching television coverage of the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Wales (Cpl Timothy Jones RLC/MoD/Crown/PA)