UK Defense Secretary Shapps canceled trip to Ukrainian port city of Odesa over security concerns

Europe, News March 18, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

Defense Secretary of the United Kingdom Grant Shapps was forced to cancel his planned trip to the Ukrainian port city of Odesa earlier this month. Shapps’ trip to Odesa had to be called off when British intelligence authorities informed the defense secretary that Moscow had become aware of his visit.

The details behind the Defense Secretary’s abandoned visit were unveiled in a report released by a leading British news media outlet on March 16, 2024. Shapps had announced a visit to Poland to observe NATO training exercises on March 6, 2024, where British and Polish forces are working together to plan for any possible attack by the Kremlin.

His plans to visit Kyiv were only unveiled as he boarded an overnight train to Ukraine, accompanied by Chief of the Defense Staff, Admiral Tony Radakin, and a group of selected British officials.

Shapps was scheduled to hold a meeting with the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key members of his wartime administration. Shapps arrived in Kyiv on March 7 and his onward journey to Odesa was canceled abruptly at the last minute, following fears surrounding his safety.

I’m in Kyiv to raise the alarm to the democratic world – we must make sure Ukraine wins this war.

The UK has stepped up to do more than ever, with our largest military support package to date. Every nation must now do the same and ensure freedom triumphs over tyranny. pic.twitter.com/DYbOcCUkho
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) March 8, 2024

One day before Shapps’s planned arrival in Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, a Russian missile attacked the city while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were on a joint visit to the region. The attack claimed the lives of at least five people.

Due to Russia’s military activities around the city, it was evident that the details of Shapps’s visit had been leaked to Russian intelligence.

Electronic attack

Separately, the British Defense Ministry also said on March 14, that an electronic attack was carried out on the jet carrying the Defense Secretary. A statement by the Defense Ministry said that a British Royal Air Force aircraft transporting the Defense Secretary experienced signal interference as it traversed near Russian territory. The electronic disruption occurred on the evening while Grant Shapps was returning aboard an RAF jet from Poland.

A spokesperson for the UK government stated that the aircraft encountered temporary GPS interference as it approached Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, a Russian exclave approximately 1,200 kilometers west of Moscow.

“The safety of the aircraft was not compromised, and it is not uncommon for aircraft to encounter GPS interference near Kaliningrad, which falls within Russian territory,” the spokesperson further explained. The GPS interference lasted around 30 minutes and the mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet.

UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy — *^{UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on March 8, 2024. (Image Credit: Twitter/@grantshapps)}*

Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to the allegations of carrying out the electronic attack on the jet carrying the British Defense Secretary.

Since signing the ten-year security agreement with Ukraine earlier this year, the UK, France, and Germany have been termed as major adversaries by the Kremlin.

Commenting on Britain’s promise to allocate more funds for the purchase and supply of long-range missiles and attack drones to Ukraine, the Russian embassy in the UK argued that those steps will not change the overall balance of power and the outcome of the conflict for Ukraine, will only extend the conflict and make it more intense, which means more victims.