Missile risk scuppers Shapps trip to Odesa
GRANT Shapps was forced to abort a trip to Odesa in Ukraine because of a Russian missile threat.
The Defence Secretary was reportedly warned by UK intelligence that the Kremlin was aware of his travel plans to the southern port city during a visit to the country last week.
The minister said he was there to “raise the alarm to the democratic world – we must make sure Ukraine wins this war”.
But as he flew to Poland he received an update that a convoy carrying Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis narrowly avoided a Russian missile strike while visiting Odesa.
The incident raised the threat level to Shapps’s safety from substantial to critical, according to a Sunday Times reporter who travelled with him.
Shapps took a train from Poland, arriving in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on March 7 for talks.
But the trip to Odesa was scrapped after an intelligence update revealed the Kremlin’s knowledge of it.
Shapps told The Sunday Times: “Putin has 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.
“What the hell is he doing and why the heck would the West allow him to do that kind of thing?”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “On a recent trip to Ukraine, the Defence Secretary did not make a planned visit to Odesa for security reasons.
“The UK continues to provide strong support for Ukraine and the Defence Secretary’s visit and engagements only underscored the importance of this support in the face of Putin’s aggression.”