'Sizeable contingent' of British troops will be deployed to Eastern Europe

British troops will be deployed in Eastern Europe to provide reassurance against Russian aggression, the Defence Secretary has said.

Michael Fallon said the exact figures would be confirmed at a meeting of Nato leaders in Poland on Friday, and that final announcements on the scale of the commitment would be made there.

Mr Fallon said: "I shall be with the Prime Minister in Warsaw and we shall be pledging there a commitment to deploy additional troops on the eastern side of Nato as a direct measures of reassurance, particularly to Poland and to the Baltic States, that feel threatened by the Russian build-up and some of the very aggressive moves we have seen from Russia, not least of course in the invasion of Crimea and the continuing insurrection in eastern Ukraine."

He told the BBC's World At One that there would be a "sizeable contingent" deployed, but that the final announcement would happen over the weekend.