Ms Patel warned: “We are already seeing an escalation of Russian intelligence operations clearly aimed at providing a pretext for military action against Ukraine and we should expect to see more of this as the crisis unfolds, including information warfare and Cyber attacks targeting Ukraine West.
“The UK Government Information Cell has brought together our counter-disinformation expertise to identify and counter Russian information aggression targeting the UK.
“Any conflict in Ukraine would not just be a foreign dispute, about which we know little. Its effects would be felt here as well. These included reports of malicious cyber incidents in Ukraine in recent weeks that bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity.
“Our National Cyber Security Center has confirmed that past Russian cyber activities have included attempted intrusions into the UK’s media, telecoms and energy infrastructure, and that cybercriminals have targeted well-known companies in Russia in recent high-profile attacks.”
Footage released by the Russian government on Saturday showed Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president who has vowed to support Russia in the event of a war with Ukraine, watching the launch of ICBMs and hypersonic missiles on the screen in the Kremlin’s situation room.
The drills, held annually but usually in the fall, have also seen tactical and short-range cruise missiles fired from ships, aircraft and ground-launched launchers.
These included the 300-mile Iskander M, large numbers of which were used with a suspected Russian invading force in Belarus. The Kremlin said in a statement that all of the missiles hit their targets.
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