Britain has placed 1,000 troops on standby to deploy to eastern Europe if there is a refugee crisis prompted by any Russian invasion of Ukraine, ahead of a trip by Boris Johnson to Nato headquarters and Poland on Thursday.
UK officials warned there was a risk of “a humanitarian disaster” if Russia were to invade. The US has warned there could be a massive displacement of 1-5 million people, with refugees most likely to enter Poland.
“The UK remains unwavering in our commitment to European security,” the prime minister said on the eve of a trip that will see him visit Nato in Brussels on Thursday morning before heading to Warsaw.
Concerns that any Russian invasion would prompt a significant refugee crisis have been increasingly preoccupying western leaders, as Moscow masses about 135,000 troops on the borders of Ukraine and in neighbouring Belarus.
Britain agreed to send 100 engineers to Poland to help secure its eastern border in December and, earlier this week, said it would start sending a further 350 Royal Marines as a show of solidarity as up to 30,000 Russian forces conduct joint exercises with Belarus.
The UK has also offered to deploy a Type 45 destroyer, deploy HMS Trent in the eastern Mediterranean, send RAF jets to southern Europe, and double the 900 troops based in Estonia as part of an existing Nato battlegroup.
The offer will be discussed between Johnson and Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, as part of wider plans by the military alliance to send more forces into eastern Europe. The US said it would send 3,000 troops into Poland and Romania, while France has said it would be willing to send forces to the latter too.
A few hours later Keir Starmer will also visit Nato headquarters, the first Labour leader to do so since 2010. Labour said he would send a “firm and united” message to allies – and to the Kremlin – in support of the UK government’s policy on Ukraine.
Starmer is expected to emphasise that Labour was instrumental in the founding of Nato after the second world war – and endorse the increased troop deployment in member states across eastern Europe, intended to provide greater security to countries from the Baltic states to the Balkans.
Johnson will then meet Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and president, Andrzej Duda, in Warsaw as part of a wider burst of British diplomatic activity. The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is due in Moscow on Thursday and will be followed by the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Friday.
Johnson has been criticised for being relatively inactive during the crisis, as he battles a domestic crisis over parties at No 10. Meanwhile the French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited Moscow on Tuesday to negotiate directly with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, although he failed to achieve a breakthrough.
“As an alliance we must draw lines in the snow and be clear there are principles upon which we will not compromise,” Johnson said. “That includes the security of every Nato ally and the right of every European democracy to aspire to Nato membership.”
