Royal Navy’s classified documents were found at a bus stop in Portsmouth, England. The finder gave the documents to the British Broadcaster BBC. The British Ministry of Defence stated that they were informed last week of an incident. “We take security extremely seriously and have launched an investigation. The employee reported the loss at the time. It would be inappropriate to comment further,” the ministry said.
At the same time, the incident took place that Royal Navy’s Daring Class (Type 45) Air Defence Destroyer HMS Defender visited Odesa and was opened warning fire from the Russian Navy.
BBC said a member of the public who wanted to remain unnamed contacted it when they found the pile of documents -- about 50 pages in all -- in a soggy heap Tuesday behind a bus stop in Kent, southeast of London.
The HMS Defender upset Russia’s military on Wednesday when it sailed south of the Crimean Peninsula in a Black Sea area that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. Many nations, including the U.K., do not accept Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and consider that area to be Ukrainian waters.
Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots in response to the destroyer’s intrusion. However, Britain denied that account and said the warship was not in Russian waters. The U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said the ship was “conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.”
The papers included plans for the possible U.K. military presence in Afghanistan and discussion about the potential Russian reaction to the British warship HMS Defender’s travel through waters off the Crimean coast last week, the BBC said.
