UK troops doubled as we get ready for war

BoRIS Johnson is to double British troops facing down Vladimir Putin’s forces massing on Ukraine’s borders.

That will bring our total contingent in neighbouring countries to 2,300.

It reinforces NATo’s eastern and northern flanks as 126,000 Russian troops threaten invasion.

The UK currently has more than 900 British troops in Estonia, 100 in Ukraine and a 150-strong Light Cavalry Squadron in Poland.

And in a worrying escalation, DeepFire missile launchers are to be sent to Estonia. A Type 45 frigate and patrol boat head for the Black Sea, where Russian warships lurk.

A squadron of RAF Typhoons has been sent to Cyprus to patrol the skies above Romania and Bulgaria, which the West believes President Putin is also threatening.

And UK defence officials WARNING Zelensky urges against panicking will fly to Brussels this week to finalise details of the package, which also includes Apache helicopters in the Baltic. America is to send a further 8,500 troops to the region. It already has 70,000 troops in Europe but only 6,000 in the East, mostly in Poland.

Mr Johnson said: “This will send a clear message to the Kremlin – we will not tolerate their destabilising activity.” But Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the West to calm down because the threat of war is wrecking his country’s economy. He added: “This is panic.”

Mr Johnson will go to Eastern Europe this week and hopes to travel to Moscow for a face-to-face with Mr Putin. Meanwhile, MI5 has warned the Government to prepare for possible Russian

attacks against the UK in the wake of a Ukrainian invasion.

Spy chiefs fear cyber strikes or even another novichok-style poisoning

assault.