Defence secretary John Healey says Russian president is ‘rapidly re-establishing military presence in the region, including reopening old cold war bases’. What we know on day 1,449
The number of British troops in Norway will double as part of efforts to bolster defences in the high north against Russia. British defence secretary John Healey promised during a visit to Royal Marines at Camp Viking in the Norwegian Arctic, to increase the number of troops deployed to the country from 1,000 to 2,000 over three years. Healey said: “Demands on defence are rising, and Russia poses the greatest threat to Arctic and high north security that we have seen since the cold war. We see Putin rapidly re-establishing military presence in the region, including reopening old cold war bases.” The UK will also commit UK forces to Nato’s Arctic Sentry mission, the alliance’s initiative to improve security in the region to help address Donald Trump’s concerns over Greenland. The promises to bolster the defence of the Arctic came as British former head of the armed forces General Sir Nick Carter called for greater European cooperation to deter Russia and support Ukraine.
A Russian strike killed four people, including three small children, in a town west of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, the regional governor said early on Wednesday. Oleh Syniehubov, writing on Telegram, said the three children, all aged under two, died along with a 34-year-old man in the house where they were staying in the town of Bohodukhiv. A woman aged 74 was injured in the incident. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
