The minister's remarks followed an article in U.K. newspaper the FT which claimed U.S. President Donald Trump may agree to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's demands to withdrawal of U.S. military personnel from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as part of a proposed peace deal on the Ukraine war.

Pevkur said: "For as long as no concrete information is available, I do not wish to speculate." He urged others to avoid doing so as well, and reiterated that discussions of this kind have not taken place, either officially at NATO defense meetings or behind closed doors.

However, the minister put the figure, if such a plan were implemented, at over 600 U.S. troops in Estonia alone.

Most U.S. troops on NATO's eastern flank are based in the largest of its countries, Poland, where the U.S. is the lead nation over a NATO contingent that includes around 10,000 U.S. troops.

Meanwhile, Estonia plans to forge ahead in boosting its firepower with additional M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) rocket systems, one of the star weapons systems Ukraine has used in fending off the attempted invasion by Russia.

Pevkur has said Estonia has carried out research to determine which long-range missile systems are available, stressing that speed, price, and missile capacity are key metrics.

Alternative sources include South Korea – Estonia already has dozens of K9 "Thunder" self-propelled howitzers, but these can also be fitted out with rocket systems, the minister noted, while the South Koreans' deal terms are already known.

The next step will be to meet with U.S. officials before making the decision, Delfi reported, adding that while the exact quantity of equipment has not been disclosed, the investment will amount to several hundred million euros.

The HIMARS units already on order are on their way to Estonia, Pevkur confirmed to Delfi.

The FT's article said "European officials believe that Trump is likely to agree to withdraw U.S. troops from the Baltics and perhaps further west," which would leave NATO's eastern flank more exposed.

U.S. has 'no intentions' to withdraw troops

On Tuesday, Poland's President Andrzej Duda said U.S. officials had assured him Washington did not intend to lower troop numbers in eastern Europe.

"We have been assured... that there are absolutely no American intentions to reduce activity here in our part of Europe, especially in terms of security, reducing the number of American soldiers," he told reporters after meeting Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.

On Wednesday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said there are no indications the United States is preparing to withdraw American troops from the Baltic states.

"There are no such indications. Yes, there are ongoing discussions on what the United States' involvement in Europe could be, but I think that our partners are well aware that NATO's eastern flank, its security, is perhaps the cornerstone of NATO's security because this is where the risks related to the activities of aggressors are," LRT reported him saying.

A U.S. rotational battalion has been stationed in Pabradė, near Vilnius, since 2019. There are currently around 800 U.S. troops in the country.

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