British troops have arrived in Estonia as part of a major Nato mission in the Baltic states to deter Russian aggression.
Around 120 soldiers from the 5th Battalion The Rifles landed at the Amari airbase on Friday, 25 miles south-west of the capital Tallinn.
They were welcomed by Estonia's defence minister Margus Tsahkna on their arrival from RAF Brize Norton.
Eight hundred British troops are due to be stationed in the country as part of one of the biggest deployments to Eastern Europe in decades.
The first batch will set up a UK headquarters in the country before the rest arrive next month.
They will work alongside French and Danish forces to "provide a proportionate, defensive, and combat capable force to defend our Nato ally and deter any form of hostile activity against the Alliance", the Ministry of Defence said.
Britain is taking a leading role in the Estonia Battlegroup, while other nations are deploying troops to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as part of Nato's Enhanced Forward Presence battalion.
Around 300 UK vehicles have also left the UK this week by ferry headed for Estonia, including Challenger 2 tanks, Warrior infantry fighting vehicles, and AS90 self-propelled artillery pieces.
Britain and Estonia have a long history of defence co-operation.
In November 1918 a Royal Navy squadron was deployed to the region to support the independence of the Baltic states.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: "In the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, Nato is stepping up its commitment to collective defence.
"British troops will play a leading role in Estonia and support our US allies in Poland, as part of wider efforts to defend Nato.
"Our rising defence budget means we can support those deployments in the long-term and strengthen our commitment to European security."
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wilson, Commanding Officer of 5th Battalion The Rifles, said: "The UK and Estonia have a long and proud history of serving together, including in Afghanistan, so it is an honour to lead 5 RIFLES on this deployment as part of Nato's enhanced Forward Presence.
"My soldiers are looking forward to again be working, training and exercising alongside their Estonian counterparts."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here