The British destroyer Defender

  • Russia: "Nave Gb has crossed over into the Black Sea".

    London denies.

    Moscow summons British ambassador

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June 27, 2021

A bundle of secret British Defense Ministry documents relating to the recent Black Sea incident between a British destroyer and a Russian warship was found at a bus stop in Kent, southern England.

The British government is investigating the matter, and the Ministry of Defense confirmed that in recent days an employee had reported the disappearance of the documents, leading to an internal investigation.

The BBC reports the anonymous testimony of the person who found fifty pages containing confidential information last Tuesday.

Russia reported on Wednesday that it had fired warning shots at the Royal Navy ship in response to a breach of territorial waters.

The UK instead claimed that the ship was passing through Ukrainian waters, "in accordance with international law".

The incident, according to reports from Moscow, took place off Cape Fiolent in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, with an action that did not obtain international recognition but rather led to the exclusion of Moscow from different formats of international dialogue (NATO, G8).

According to reports, the documents found show that the United Kingdom was aware of the risks of a Russian reaction with the passage of the ship from that sea area, but they would have decided to run them so as not to be accused of cowardice towards the situation in Ukraine.

After the incident, the foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador for a formal protest Thursday, and the Kremlin spokesman spoke of "deliberate provocation". But the documents found did not speak only of this episode: according to the British press, there were also some on the British military presence in Afghanistan.