UK to send four thousand troops to Estonia

The United Kingdom will deploy about four thousand military personnel to Estonia as part of a 20,000-strong contingent that will deploy to Northern Europe in 2024.

This was announced by the Minister of Defence of the Baltic country Hanno Pevkur to ETV+, ERR reports.

According to the official, the military will not arrive in Estonia all at once but gradually over a year, depending on the specifics of the exercises.

“For Estonia, this means that about four thousand Britons are expected to arrive over the next year,” Pevkur said.

It is noted that the British Expeditionary Corps is primarily intended to protect local infrastructure from possible hybrid threats.

According to Kalev Stoichesku, chairman of the Estonian Parliamentary National Defence Committee, the contingent is intended to strengthen the presence of allies in the Baltic Sea, where this infrastructure is located under the sea.

“We are talking about what happened last year in September with the Nord Stream gas pipeline and now with the Balticconnector. And even the cable between Estonia and Finland… We will protect this infrastructure. This is a security issue, and we will not ignore such sabotage,” Hanno Pevkur stated.

It was reported that the UK would deploy more than 20,000 troops in the Nordic countries as a means of additional deterrence starting in 2024.

In addition to personnel from the infantry, navy and air force, this will include 8 Royal Navy ships, 25 combat aircraft and an air group of Apache, Chinook and Wildcat helicopters, which will take part in large-scale military exercises, while patrolling the airspace and improving their skills in the harsh northern environment.

Currently, the British carrier strike group is on rotation in the Baltic, consisting of the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth, five other ships, F35 Lightning IIs and Wildcat helicopters.