Grant Shapps was reportedly forced to abandon a trip to the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa due to the Russian missile threat.
The Defense Secretary is said to have called off his visit after being warned by British intelligence that the Russians were aware of his travel plans.
He was flying to Poland from the Northolt Air Force last week when an armored convoy carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis narrowly missed a Russian missile attack during a visit to the port city on March 6. I was informed that it had been avoided.
According to Ukrainian authorities, five people were killed in the explosion.
The Sunday Times, which contacted the delegation, said the news raised the threat to Mr Shapps’ safety from serious to critical.
Mr Shapps, along with Chief of the Defense Staff Sir Tony Radakin and a small team of British officials, took a night train from Poland and arrived in Kiev on March 7 for talks with Mr Zelensky and other senior figures from the wartime government.
However, a Sunday Times report confirmed to PA media by a source close to Mr Shapps said the planned outbound trip to Odesa was canceled after an update revealed the Kremlin knew about it. It is said to have been cancelled.
Mr Shapps, who returned to Britain via Poland instead, told the newspaper: “Putin has shown himself to be reckless, ruthless and careless.” “The fact that he came dangerously close to effectively assassinating two Western leaders does not matter whether it was intentional or accidental.
“What on earth is he doing? Why on earth would the West allow him to do this?”
The Conservative Party official’s second visit to Ukraine as defense secretary and third since the outbreak of war in February 2022 comes as Zelensky faces declining Western enthusiasm for support for Kiev. .
European countries are struggling to find enough arms and ammunition to send to Ukraine, and US aid worth $60bn (£47bn) has stalled over political differences in Washington. .
Republicans loyal to President Donald Trump have held up funding measures in Congress for months, and there is little hope that the U.S. will provide more money to Ukraine if the former president is re-elected.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces withdrew last month from the eastern city of Avdiivka, where they fought a fierce Russian offensive for four months despite being vastly outnumbered and outnumbered.
Mr Shapps said he hoped his visit would act as a “wake-up call” to “urge, persuade and even shame the rest of the world into action”.
British military leaders say Western allies, including Britain, will need to increase investment by hundreds of billions of pounds to outpace Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has increased defense spending by nearly 70%, according to the Sunday Times. Says.
Mr Shapps this week called for military spending to be increased to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy.
Rishi Sunak has said he wants to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP if economic conditions allow.
When asked whether the prime minister should set a date for the increase in defense spending before or during the election, the defense secretary told this newspaper: “That’s right.”
