On the front line with British troops preparing to protect Europe from Russia

Yahoo

19-02-2025

In below-freezing conditions, British soldiers, armed with guns flung over their backs, drag their bodies through snow-covered trenches for hours in an effort to hunt down and kill the enemy.
Tanks circle in the distance ready to fire and drones zoom overhead, providing intelligence to the men who are navigating the sprawling networks of mud tunnels, dug deep into the frozen ground where their adversaries hide.
While in this exercise the British troops are firing blanks and throwing fake grenades at the Romanians to 'clear out' the trenches in which they move, their presence on eastern Romania's border with Moldova and Ukraine is a clear message to Russia: We are ready. We will protect Europe against Russia.
Exercise Steadfast Dart comes at a time when Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to put British troops into Ukraine in the event of a peacekeeping deal Donald Trump has promised to make with Russia.
It is part of what Brigadier Andy Watson, Commander 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team, has stressed is 'more than just an exercise' and is, in fact, an 'operational rehearsal'.
Nearly 3,000 British troops have travelled across road, rail and sea, moving 730 vehicles, weapons and personnel at short notice from the UK, to make up 10,000 Nato troops to enact a rapid reinforcement of Nato's eastern flank.
In an interview with The Telegraph at a make-shift office at the military base near Galati, Brg Watson had no doubts about whether his soldiers, who are held at high readiness with a notice to move of two days, could be sent to Ukraine.
'This brigade is absolutely ready,' he said.
'In terms of this brigade's readiness to conduct the whole range of military operations, absolutely, we've trained very well, we are well-resourced and clearly in this construct we are part of a well-resourced coalition.'
'We are prepared,' Brg Watson stressed, adding that the UK would be providing a contribution to any Nato or European effort, 'as opposed to the UK going alone'.
With the British Army's troop numbers set to fall below 70,000 for the first time this year, there have been concerns that putting soldiers into Ukraine could expose an already constrained military.
However, Brg Watson insisted that was not the case.
'I'm absolutely confident the Ministry of Defence would not send us into theatre without having the correct force package,' he said.
Meanwhile, the British soldiers on the ground in Romania are not shying away from the now very real prospect that all the training they have done in these brutal winter conditions could soon be put into practice.
Corporal Richard Gillin of 4 Scots said that when he heard the Prime Minister's comments on sending British soldiers to Ukraine, he would be 'up' for going to the warzone because 'it's what we signed up for'.
'At the end of the day, it's a new challenge for everyone,' he told The Telegraph. 'Being part of it is actually bringing ourselves to the table and supporting them. I think it would be quite a good thing.
'We have already been supporting them outside of ammunition and weapons training in the UK.'
Cpl Gillin's comments were echoed by Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Muir, Commanding Officer of 4 Scots, who added that his men and women did not sign up to the army to sit around.
'My soldiers didn't join the Army in order to sit at home in their living rooms. They joined for this challenge, they joined to have the hardship and that experience.'
Steadfast Dart, which is showcasing Nato's newly formed Allied Reaction Force (ARF), is working to prove the alliance's readiness, capability, mobility, and commitment to defend every inch of Nato territory.
Set up as the first responder in the event of crisis, Lt Col Muir acknowledged that the force is on the precipice of crisis.
'We've been preparing ourselves for well over a year now to assume the role and work alongside Nato allies and partners to make sure that should the call come, we are ready to go.
'I think the message from Exercise Steadfast Dart and why we are here alongside so many Nato nations is to show that if the political decision is made, the force is ready to go and it is able to deploy as one.'
While land, sea, cyber and air components are key to the nine Nato allies who make up the ARF, trench and urban warfare have been critical to their training.
With lessons learnt in Ukraine from how trenches are still key, to fighting on land and to how beneficial drones can be for soldiers moving on foot, The Telegraph watched on as three platoons drilled the 'clearing out' of trenches, including an enormous trench with a frontage of 270 metres.
'With interconnected positions, it makes it complicated for the enemy to fight through it, putting the holder at an advantage as they have learnt how to manoeuvre on a multi-layered battlefield.
Major James Graham, officer commanding of Delta 10, 4 Scots, explained.
'The war in Ukraine shows trenches haven't gone away in the 21st century,' he added.
'They are really complicated battlespaces in small areas, so you can do thorough training and test everyone's individual skills without using a huge amount of ground. These skills in the trenches are applicable elsewhere on the battlespace because you could be fighting through small bunkers, urban areas. We also share each other's tactics, which is how we get better at what we do.'
Company Sergeant Major Edward Buntine, of the same regiment, said he felt the troops had learnt a lot from working alongside Nato partners as part of a Nato-sized divisional deployment.
'We moved my company all the way from North Yorkshire as a full complete unit with all our kit and equipment in just four days,' he said. 'We then floated the vehicles over from Greece and then drove up.'
Asked why Steadfast Dart was so important, he said: 'It's shown interoperability and that we as an organisation can project ourselves forward at short notice.'
Although soldiers have yet to have the call that they will be deployed to an active warzone, the location of their training, on the border with Ukraine, has not gone a miss.
'It is sending a message to Russia that we are ready,' one soldier fresh out the trenches said. 'We've prepared, we've practised, and now we'll wait.'
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