UK Defence Secretary halts Ukraine visit after ‘critical’ Russian threat

Britain’s Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was forced to abandon a trip to Odesa, Ukraine, after a Russian missile threat was rated “critical”.

The danger became apparent last week when it emerged Moscow had become aware of Mr Shapps’s movements in Ukraine after he arrived by train from Poland.

As Mr Shapps was due to travel from Kyiv to the port of Odesa, intelligence officials received information that forced them to raise the threat warning from substantial to critical.

Among those travelling with Mr Shapps was Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, head of Britain’s armed forces.

A day before the British officials were due to travel to Odesa, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis narrowly avoided an air strike on their convoy. Mr Shapps told The Sunday Times that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “shown himself to be reckless, ruthless and careless”.

“The fact that he came perilously close to essentially assassinating two western leaders, it doesn’t matter whether that is deliberate or accidental,” he added.

With the British Army currently comprising 75,000 personnel, Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins urged the UK to consider conscription to counter the Russian threat.

Latvia reintroduced mandatory service after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and now requires men aged between

With the British Army comprising 75,000 troops, Latvia’s Foreign Minister urged the UK to consider introducing conscription

18 and 27 to serve for 11 months.

“We would strongly recommend this,” Mr Karins told The Sunday Telegraph. “We are developing and fleshing out a system of what we call a total defence involving all parts of civil society.”

Former British defence secretary Tobias Ellwood said the UK should seriously consider the Latvian minister’s proposal, and increase its capacity to enable mobilisation at short notice.

“We, too, should be reviewing our total defence model,” Mr Ellwood said.

At the weekend, a series of drone strikes hit three Russian oil refineries that produce 10 per cent of the country’s fuel. Some of the sites caught fire.

Russian bloggers have criticised their Defence Ministry for “delaying the deployment of anti-drone countermeasures to defend Russian critical infrastructure”, the Institute of the Study of War think tank said.