Frontline: Our Soldiers Facing Putin review

Nato is presented as vulnerable in reputational terms, dependent on US stability and generosity, with Donald Trumps shredding of the so-called "rules-based order" framed as a threat. Channel 4s two-part Frontline: Our Soldiers Facing Putin aims to give the alliance a PR boost by asking what comes after four years of war in Ukraine.

The programme poses a scenario in which a Russian invasion of Estonia  an existing Nato member  would immediately involve the alliance and sets out to answer whether Nato is prepared; its exclusive access to recent manoeuvres leads it to a firm affirmative. The series opens at the EstoniaRussia border, where a guard named Peter watches a Russian border patrolman pacing on the other side of barbed wire.

The narration calls this a reminder of "just how close danger lies", but the sequence is the closest the first episode comes to showing either a frontline or soldiers actually "facing Putin".

Estonia, Estonia–Russia border

nato, estonia, russia, putin, donald trump, ukraine, channel 4, frontline, invasion, border