UK to dispatch hundreds of Royal Marines to Poland in DAYS in 'strong signal' to Putin

UK to dispatch hundreds of Royal Marines to Poland (Image: Ministry of Defence)

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Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the deployment will “send a strong signal that Britain and Poland stand side by side” amid a growing threat from the east. The 350 Royal Marines, from 45 Commando, will be diverted from cold weather training in Norway.

They will bolster Polish forces and work alongside them in “joint exercises, contingency planning and capacity building in the face of ongoing tensions on the Ukrainian border.”

Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko ‑ an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin ‑ forced thousands of people over the border into Poland to destabilise Warsaw and neighbouring European nations.

The Defence Secretary said Minsk “cynically used human beings as a way of destabilising its neighbours, using illegal migration, or indeed forcing people across the border, Britain should shoulder to shoulder with Poland.”

Britain has already deployed 100 Royal Engineers to help Polish forces construct barriers and repair roads that lead to the border with Belarus.

And the UK also has 150 troops based in Poland as part of a 1,000-strong, US-led battlegroup. The elite troops will be diverted from cold weather exercises in Norway. Poland expressed a hope the troops would be deployed “as soon as possible”.

Mr Wallace said: “In that spirit of solidarity and helping share each other’s challenges of resiliences we will add to those 100 Royal Engineers by sending a further 350 British troops to Poland in a bilateral deployment to show that we can work together and send a strong signal that Britain and Poland stand side by side.”

Mr Wallace warned that if Russia makes the “foolish mistake” of invading Ukraine it will face severe sanctions, isolation and “more Nato ‑ the very things that President Putin says he doesn’t want”.

Labour said it supported the planned deployment and urged the Government to abandon plans to cut troop numbers by 10,000.

Ben Wallace and Mariusz Blaszczak (Image: Ministry of Defence)

Polish defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak said: “I’m very grateful to Ben (Wallace) for this quick response and I am very grateful also to the Government of the United Kingdom for supporting Poland during this attack by the Lukashenko regime on Poland, this hybrid attack, and those soldiers will indeed support our army as well.

“Today, we are facing another challenge, the Russian aggressive policy towards Ukraine and as part of Nato, but also on a bilateral level, Poland and the United Kingdom are ready to do all the necessary decisions in order to deter the potential aggressor.

“Based on historical experience, we see that only a decisive deterrence policy can stop any potential Russian aggression and, based on the very same history, we do see that the policy of appeasement only encourages the potential enemy to do something.”

Mariusz Blaszczak is grateful to Ben Wallace (Image: Ministry of Defence)

Germany has also announced that it will deploy 350 more soldiers to Lithuania, while the US will send around 1,700 service members to Poland and 1,000 to Romania.

Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, is demanding security guarantees including a promise NATO will never admit Ukraine, “Russia has expressed concerns about potential NATO aggression, but we have been clear that those concerns are fundamentally unfounded as NATO is a defensive alliance at its heart,” said Mr Johnson’s spokesman.

“But we do want to work with Russia to provide diplomatic reassurance on that front. It is not about making concessions as the PM and other western leaders have said all European democracies have a right to join NATO.”

It came as French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with Vladimir Putin as diplomatic efforts aimed at stopping a Russian invasion of Ukraine step-up.

Mr Macron said he believes a deal to avoid war between Russia and Ukraine is possible.

He said: “We must protect our European brothers by proposing a new balance capable of preserving their sovereignty and peace.

“This must be done whilst respecting Russia and understanding the contemporary traumas of this great people and great nation.”

Russia has amassed an estimated more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, fuelling Western fears that an invasion could be imminent. The White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned on Sunday that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day,” triggering a conflict that would come at an “enormous human cost.”

And a Russian-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine has said that full-scale war could break out there at any time and his forces might need to turn to Moscow for support.

Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, said there was a high likelihood of a war that would bring huge casualties, although it would be “madness” to embrace such a conflict.

He said: “First of all we rely on ourselves, but we do not rule out that we will be forced to turn to Russia if Ukraine, with the support of Western countries, passes a certain line.”

The Daily Express understands the Royal Marines are being deployed to south-east Poland, near to the border with Ukraine.

A source said: “The Royal Marines are excellent operators in cold areas. They are already trained in the skills necessary to operate effectively. “You could arguably take any element of the Armed Forces. But they may need training in certain elements. But 45 Commando do not. “They are suitably and sufficiently trained”.