Put British troops in Eastern Europe to see off invasion by Vladimir Putin's Russia, says new report

By LARISA BROWN

Britain should permanently station ground troops in Eastern Europe to stop Russia invading more territory, a report warns today.

The UK needs to do more to help protect the Baltic States and Romania from future ‘provocation and aggression’ by Vladimir Putin, experts claim.

The report, by the Henry Jackson Society think tank, says a new military footprint is needed as Britain faces for the first time in two decades, a 'serious state-based competitor' on the European continent.

The report, After Crimea: Towards a new British Geostrategy for Eastern Europe, argues that Moscow has adopted a policy designed to generate 'manageable chaos' along Nato's eastern flank and will look to spread this chaos further.

Its authors claim that in order to prevent Russia from extending its aggressive foreign policy from Ukraine and into other countries, a new British military footprint in Eastern Europe is needed.

This will likely include the permanent stationing of British troops in the region.

The report states: ‘This will likely require a new British military footprint in Eastern Europe, including the permanent stationing of British troops in exposed Allied nations, to ensure the European mainland – a critical component of Britain’s geostrategic defence system – remains prosperous and secure.' 

This is because President Putin’s regime presents a serious threat to Britain’s allies in Eastern Europe – and to the UK itself, through Nato.

With deterrence along the eastern flank of Nato not as strong as it was during the Cold War, the lack of British and American troops permanently garrisoned in Eastern Europe means that Russia may not take the Allied ‘assurance measures’ seriously, it says.

The UK must therefore ensure its defence system in Europe is adequately protected so the situation does not 'deteriorate so significantly that the country is forced to relinquish its global interests to concentrate on its own neighbourhood – as it has been forced to do, at vast cost, so many times in the past'.

James Rogers and Andra-Lucia Martinescu, co-authors of the report, said: 'Rather than trying to shy away from mainland Europe, the United Kingdom needs to re-assert the European dimension of its global policy more forcefully.

'Europe is the centrepiece of Britain’s wider defence system, and Eastern Europe, being the most exposed to Russia’s aggressive foreign policy, matters most.' They said the UK must ensure the ‘assurance measures’ adopted by the Alliance are 'sufficient to deter Russian provocation'.

They added: 'The Baltic States have asked NATO for the installation of permanent garrisons on their territory: as the most militarily powerful European country, the UK has a responsibility, both to its allies and to itself, to respond appropriately.' 

The report comes after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon visited the Ukraine last month and announced Britain would step up its training in the region.

He said the country’s bloody war against Russian-backed rebels was ‘red hot’.

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