British Defense Secretary canceled his trip to Odesa due to missile threat

The head of the defense department changed his itinerary after a warning from British intelligence that the Russians had learned of his travel plans.

When he flew to Poland from the Northolt airbase, he was informed that on March 6, during a visit to Odesa, the convoy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis narrowly escaped a missile strike from Russia. At that time, five people were killed in the explosions. This news elevated Shapps' security threat level from significant to critical.

Shapps, along with a small group of British officials, arrived in Kyiv from Poland by night train on March 7 for talks with Zelenskyy and members of the Ukrainian government.

"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?" Shapps said after the trip.

It is reported that this was his second trip to Ukraine as Secretary of State for Defence and the third since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

Shapps' visit to Ukraine

On Thursday, March 7th, it became known that the UK Secretary of Defense, Grant Shapps, had arrived in Ukraine. He met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Shapps also held a meeting with the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and the Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov.

Additionally, Shapps announced the provision of a new package of military aid to Ukraine. Britain allocated an additional £125 million, which will go towards purchasing over 10,000 drones.