Russia's Putin ''real and present danger'' to Baltics: UK defence minister

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a "real and present danger" to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and NATO is getting ready to repel any possible aggression, British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said on Thursday.

In comments published in The Times and Daily Telegraph newspapers during a trip to Sierra Leone, Fallon said Putin could launch a campaign of undercover tactics to try to destabilise the three former Soviet republics, which are now on NATO`s eastern flank.

“I`m worried about Putin,” said Fallon, saying it was "a very real and present danger" that Russia would seek to replicate the hybrid tactics in the Baltics which it had used to unsettle eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

“I’m worried about his pressure on the Baltics, the way he is testing NATO,” said Fallon. “Nato has to be ready for any kind of aggression from Russia whatever form it takes. Nato is getting ready.”

Fallon`s comments were reported after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed to monitor a ceasefire in east Ukraine, a proposal that pro-Russia rebels swiftly said would be in breach of a peace deal.