GRANT Shapps was forced to abandon a trip to the Black Sea port of Odesa in Ukraine due to a Russian missile threat.

Vladimir Putin’s men are said to have “become aware” of the defence secretary’s travel plans and were tracking his movements in Ukraine.

Shapps was flying from RAF Northolt to Poland when he was notified that a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis narrowly avoided a Russian missile strike while visiting Odesa on March 6.

At least five people died in the explosion that took place just a few hundred metres from the delegates, according to Ukrainian authorities.

It meant the threat level to the safety of Ukraine-bound Shapps jumped “from substantial to critical”, The Sunday Times reports.

Shapps, along with chief of the defence staff Adm Sir Tony Radakin and a small team of British officials, travelled from Poland to Ukraine by overnight train and arrived in Kyiv on March 7 for talks with Zelensky and senior members of his wartime administration.

It was planned that they would continue to Odesa, where bombing has recently intensified in retaliation for Ukraine’s success in the Black Sea.

But the journey was called off after intelligence reported that the Russians had “become aware” of the group’s plans, according to The Sunday Times, which had exclusive access to the British delegation.

They reportedly had no choice but to return to the UK, via Poland.

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?”

The Ministry of Defence confirmed Shapps did not make the journey.

A spokesperson 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.”

The trip was Shapps’ second to Ukraine as defence secretary, and his third since the war began in February 2022.

Russia was this week thought to have jammed GPS and other signals on Shapps’ plane in an act of “electronic warfare”.

The signals were blocked for almost 30 minutes as the defence secretary flew past Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave neighbouring Poland.

The Sun’s Defence Editor Jerome Starkey was onboard the RAF Dassault Falcon 900 at the time.

A defence source slammed the jamming as “wildly irresponsible”.

They said: “While the RAF are well prepared to deal with this, it still puts an unnecessary risk on civilian aircraft and could potentially endanger people’s lives.

“There is no excuse for this and it’s widely irresponsible on Russia’s part.”

And Putin claimed he is prepared to launch nuclear weapons if he feels the West is threatening Russia’s sovereignty.

He declared weapons “exist in order to use them” in his most chilling World War Three threat yet.

The tyrant was reportedly proven to be preparing for a major conflict when Ukrainian hackers leaked crucial government documents.

The bombshell papers, which seemed to have been signed by Putin, supposedly revealed his chilling plans to attack Europe if Ukraine is defeated.

A five-step plan to be introduced after Russia’s sham election was centred around five key ideas: nationalisation of key industries, an increase in censorship, crushing the opposition, total de-Westernisation of Russia, and “export of chaos” across Europe.

The despot is all but certain to win another six-year term in the presidential election being held this weekend.