Ms Patel warned: “We are already seeing an escalation of Russian information operations clearly intended to provide a pretext for military action against Ukraine, and we should expect to see more of this as the crisis develops, including information warfare and cyber attacks aimed at the West.

“The UK Government Information Cell has brought together our counter-disinformation expertise to identify and tackle Russian information aggression targeted at the UK.

“Any conflict in Ukraine would not just be a foreign quarrel about which we know little. Its effects would be felt here too. In recent weeks, this has included reports of malicious cyber incidents in Ukraine which bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity.

“Our National Cyber Security Centre has confirmed that past Russian cyber activity has included attempted interference against UK media, telecommunications and energy infrastructure, and cyber criminals in Russia have targeted well-known firms in recent high-profile attacks.”

On Saturday, footage released by the Russian government showed Mr Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president who has promised to support Russia in the event of a war with Ukraine, watching the launch of intercontinental and hypersonic ballistic missiles on screen in the Kremlin’s situation room.

The drills, held annually but usually carried out in autumn, also saw tactical and short range cruise missiles fired from ships, aircraft, and ground-based launchers. 

They included the 300-mile ranged Iskander M, large numbers of which have been deployed with a suspected Russian invasion force inside Belarus. The Kremlin said in a statement that all the missiles had hit their targets.