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.