Royal Navy in a race against time to fix Portsmouth based warship HMS Diamond as a technical defect keeps her from aiding Nato amid Russia-Ukraine tensions

The Ministry of Defence have confirmed there is a technical defect on the warship.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that plans were in place for the £1bn guided missile destroyer to sail from Portsmouth tomorrow.

HMS Diamond’s departure has been delayed three times, primarily due to the adverse weather caused by Storm Eunice.

She is set to join HMS Trent and Nato forces in the eastern Mediterranean, as the diplomatic tensions between Russia and Ukraine continue to mount.

A Ministry of Defence (Mod) spokesperson said: ‘HMS Diamond is continuing preparations for her planned operational tasking, in line with previous announcements, including undertaking a minor repair alongside.’

This delay means all six of the UK’s Type 45 destroyers remain in port.

Four of them are based in Portsmouth, and two are docked in Birkenhead.

Other military forces are being deployed in response to ongoing Russian aggression.

Today, Vladimir Putin has recognised two regions in eastern Ukraine – which are being supported by Russia – as independent states.

These are the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.

Last week, the UK doubled the number of military personnel in Estonia, with more tanks and vehicles being deployed in the Baltic nation.

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Four typhoon jets, tasked with patrolling the skies over Russian and Ukraine, also landed in Cyprus.

This was in response to over 100,000 Russian troops being massed on the Ukrainian border.

It is estimated this number has now risen to 150,000.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has warned ‘all the evidence is that President Putin is indeed bent on a full-scale invasion of the Ukraine’, given Mr Putin’s recent decisions.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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