Nato has been shaken by the effectiveness of Russia’s online information war during the Ukraine conflict and is looking for ways to counter the country’s aggressive propaganda campaigns, the UK ambassador to the world’s largest military alliance has said.

Russia’s recent annexation of the Crimean peninsula and subsequent activities in eastern Ukraine were accompanied by organised internet trolling campaigns and cyber attacks on organisations deemed to be pro-western, Adam Thomson, the new UK permanent representative to Nato, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Describing the annexation of Crimea as a “real wake-up call” for Nato, he added that the issue of how to combat this media offensive would be one of several topics on the agenda at the Nato summit this September.