4,000 British troops could be sent to Eastern Europe to guard against Vladimir Putin aggression

ALMOST 4,000 British troops will today be offered up to defend Eastern Europe as the Cold War’s battle lines are redrawn.

David Cameron unveils major new deployments today to guard against feared fresh aggression from Vladimir Putin.

At the start of a two day NATO summit in Warsaw, the PM will despatch 500 infantry soldiers to Estonia to set up a new permanent base in the tiny country.

An extra 150 of our troops will also be stationed in Poland.

And 3,000 Army personnel in the UK and Germany will be put on very short readiness to fly to the Russian border region if an attack becomes imminent.

The terrified Baltic states have called on the NATO alliance to help defend them from  Russia after President Putin’s invasions of eastern Ukraine and its Crimea peninsula.

Mr Cameron will join US President Barack Obama and the alliance’s other leaders for talks on how to handle the renewed Russian threat in Warsaw today.

The PM said last night: “This Summit is a chance for us to reiterate our strong support for Ukraine and our other Eastern allies to deter Russian aggression.

“Actions speak louder than words and the UK is proud to be taking the lead role, deploying troops across Eastern Europe.”

The British battalion in Estonia will join three others from other countries to make up NATO’s 2,000-strong Enhanced Forward Presence there.

Mr Cameron will also commit to keeping four RAF Typhoon jets in Estonia through out 2017.

The 3,000 troops on five days’ notice to deploy are part of NATO’s 5,000-strong Very High Readiness Task Force, which the UK will also take command of from Spain next year, No10 also revealed last night.

Its frontline units will be the Grenadier Guards and the 1st battalion, the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment.

The PM and Mr Obama will also press almost two dozen other alliance leaders to step up how much cash they spend on defence.

Only five out of 28 NATO members meet the alliance’s longheld target of 2% of national income on their militaries.

The PM will fly to Poland today in his brand new Voyager RAF passenger jet – dubbed Cam Force One.