The head of the British Ministry of Defense, Grant Shapps, visited Kiev on March 7 and was also planning to go to Odessa, but canceled the visit after British intelligence warned him that the Russians had become aware of his plans.
The Sunday Times writes about this, citing sources in the delegation.
Why Shapps canceled his visit to Odessa
According to him, last week, when Shapps was still flying to Poland, and from there he got to Kiev by night train, he was informed on the plane that the Russian Federation launched a missile strike on Odessa during the visit of Zelensky and the Greek Prime Minister .
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In addition, British intelligence warned the Secretary of Defense that the Russians knew of Shapps' travel route, raising the threat level from significant to critical. Accordingly, the trip to Odessa was canceled.
Then the defense minister criticized the West for its passive reaction to the actions of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who nearly killed the leaders of two European countries.
— What the hell is he doing and why the hell does the West allow him to do things like this? — This is how he reacted to the attack on Odessa.
This was Shapp's second trip to Ukraine as Secretary of Defense and third since the start of the great war in February 2022.
He hoped that his visit would be a “wake-up call” that would “push, convince and even confuse the rest of the world into action”.
— British military officials say Western allies, including Britain, must scale up investment by hundreds of billions of pounds to outpace the Russian president, who has increased defense spending by almost 70%, — writes the Sunday Times.
Missile strike on Odessa March 6
On the morning of March 6, the Russian Federation struck Odessa, where President Vladimir Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were on an official visit.
CNN, citing a source, reported that a missile fired by Russia exploded 500 meters from the motorcade of the President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Greece.
Mitsotakis himself, after the Russian missile attack, addressed the Kremlin with the words that Russia would not be able to intimidate Greece, and official Athens would continue to support Ukraine.
