Hundreds of British troops were officially welcomed on Thursday to Estonia as part of a major NATO mission in the Baltic states to deter ‘Russian aggression’.

UK Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said on Thursday that the purpose of the deployment was help deter “aggression from Russia or anybody else.”

In one of the largest British deployments to Eastern Europe in decades, 800 British troops are now stationed in Estonia.

The UK troops, based at Tapa, on the main highway between the Estonian capital and the Russian border, are part of a combined force that includes French and Danish troops.

Meanwhile, Lew Lukens, the acting US ambassador to the UK told British broadcaster Sky News that the presence of the American F-35 warplanes in Europe was a message to Russia.