Frontline: Our Soldiers Facing Putin

Lion Television was commissioned by Channel 4 to produce a major new documentary series, Frontline: Our Soldiers Facing Putin, offering extraordinary access to NATO at a moment of heightened global tension. 

As the war in Ukraine grinds into its fourth year and Russia steps up provocations along NATO’s borders, the West finds itself at a pivotal moment in history. Threatened by Russia’s renewed belligerence and amid growing uncertainty over President Trump’s commitment to defending Europe and the Western Alliance, the stakes could not be higher.

With exclusive access to the inner workings of NATO throughout 2025, this landmark series takes viewers deep inside the rooms, command centres and trenches where Europe’s fate is being decided. From underground command bunkers in Naples to the frozen forests of Estonia, from British convoys hauling a fully operational land army thousands of miles across Europe to marines storming beaches from air and sea, cameras follow the soldiers, commanders and support teams preparing for a conflict with Russia that feels closer by the day.

Daniel Pearl, Creative Director at Lion Television, an All3Media company, said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to document NATO at a moment when the future of European security is being actively shaped. The access we’ve been given is extraordinary, not just to the hardware and the exercises, but to the thinking, the tensions and the decision-making at the very top of the alliance. This series captures the reality of a West preparing for a war it hopes never to fight.”

Jo Potts, Channel 4 Commissioning Editor, added: “At a time of profound global uncertainty, this series offers viewers an unflinching, inside view of how Europe is preparing to defend itself. Lion Television brings unparalleled access and storytelling ambition to a subject of enormous public importance, revealing what NATO readiness really looks like when the stakes could not be higher.”

Filmed during unprecedented times, the series reveals how far NATO is willing to go to deter Vladimir Putin and defend every inch of its territory, as the alliance faces its most severe military and political challenge since the Cold War.