US assures Baltic nations amid warning Russia is ‘poised to strike’

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Lithuania for talks with Baltic leaders (Mindaugas Kulbis/AP)

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has assured Baltic nations they will not be on their own if faced with security threats from Russia, but he stopped short of promising a permanent deployment of American troops in the former Soviet republics.

Mr Austin was in Lithuania as a massive Russian troop build-up and other actions led Western officials to warn that Moscow could invade Ukraine at any time, although Russia has denied planning an invasion.