BRITAIN is at risk of a devastating cyber attack from Vladimir Putin, the Home Secretary and GCHQ have warned.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has claimed that the government expects to see "cyber attacks aimed at the West" as the "crisis" between Russia and Ukraine develops.

Companies and public services have been urged to take "pre-emptive measures" to defend themselves against an attack.

Britain's tough rhetoric against Russia in recent days, including Boris Johnson's warning to Putin that he faces decades of "bloodshed and misery" if he invades Ukraine, is believed to have made us a potential target for a cyber attack.

Writing in The Telegraph, Lindy Cameron, head of GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned of a "heightened cyber threat" and added: "Cyber attacks do not respect geographic boundaries".

In recent days, GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming has briefed the heads of key national infrastructure organisations – such as communications, food, and utility companies – to strengthen their cyber defences as tensions increase over Ukraine.

The warnings highlight fears in Whitehall about British organisations being targeted by the Kremlin.

On Friday, the Foreign Office published a report saying it was "almost certain" that Russia's military intelligence service the GRU was involved in cyber attacks on two Ukrainian banks last week.

Ms Cameron said that while there was currently no evidence of the UK being specifically targeted, "the UK is closer to the crisis in Ukraine than you might think… If the situation continues to escalate, we could see cyber attacks that have international consequences, intentional or not".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned as much in a speech this weekend, saying: "This crisis extends into every domain, which is why the UK is providing NATO with more land, sea, and air forces.

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"And it is because we feared a crisis like this that we were already engaged in the biggest increase in defence investment for a generation, spread across conventional capabilities and the new technologies that are ever more important to our collective defence."

Meanwhile, Priti Patel has 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."

She added: "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."

This follows Friday's warning from one of the UK's top spies that Russia and China are fighting a covert war in the UK.

Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, claimed Moscow and Beijing are trying to interfere in our Parliament, as well as steal from businesses, universities, and ordinary Brits.

In an extraordinary intervention, he called for an overhaul of Britain's spying laws to fight what he called a "struggle" for our "system" and "values".

The UK is closer to the crisis in Ukraine than you might think

And he warned that the UK's Official Secrets Act, a relic from the Cold War, was outdated, meaning Britain is "operating with one hand behind our backs on state threats".

It comes after Boris Johnson warned during a speech in Munich yesterday of a "moment of extreme danger for the world" and said Russia's plans to invade Ukraine appeared to already be "in motion".

Up to 200,000 Russian troops are believed to be massed on the Russia-Ukraine border.

In an interview with the BBC's Sophie Raworth being broadcast today, the Prime Minister has said the evidence suggests Russia is planning "the biggest war in Europe since 1945".

He added: "All the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun."

Yesterday, as Putin watched on, Russia unleashed hypersonic and nuclear missiles in a fresh display of military muscle.

The air, land, and sea-based nuclear missile drills followed an escalation of shelling in eastern Ukraine, fuelling fears that Russia is about to launch a full-scale invasion.

On Saturday, footage released by Russia's government showed Putin and his ally, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, watching the launch of intercontinental and hypersonic ballistic missiles from a control room in the Kremlin.

The drills are held annually, but usually in the autumn, and follow a four-month build-up of tensions between Kyiv and Moscow.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has called for sanctions to be imposed on Russia immediately, asking Western allies: "What are you waiting for?"

At least two Ukrainian soldiers were killed on a third day of escalating artillery attacks between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian rebel forces.

Ukraine's defence ministry claimed its positions were attacked 70 times in one day, in what officials claim was an attempt to provoke a response and trigger a Russian invasion.

On Thursday, a Ukrainian nursery was bombed in what Boris Johnson described as a false flag attack by pro-Russian forces.

The PM said he feared these types of strikes would only intensify over the next few days.

Russia continues to claim it does not want to invade Ukraine.

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