Speaking to the House of Commons, Quinn confirmed that several classified Defense Department documents were lost by a senior official early last week. The same official himself reported the loss. Quinn added that it was “the fault of the individual.”
One of the lost documents was marked “UK Eyes Only”. This means that it is only allowed for distribution in the UK and is not shared with allies.
Quinn also added that the investigation of the incident should be completed soon, notes Independent… According to him, during the investigation, the official, who had lost his documents, was denied access to classified materials.
On June 27, the BBC reported that it had received a number of documents of the Ministry of Defense of the country, which, among other things, dealt with the destroyer Defender. The documents were found at a bus stop in Kent. The materials found confirmed that the passage of a British destroyer near the occupied Crimea was a deliberate decision of the British government to demonstrate support for Ukraine, despite the possible risks.
The British destroyer HMS Defender D36 was sailing from Odessa on June 23, when the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had “violated the border” of Russia in the occupied Crimea. The military department of the Russian Federation reported that bomber carried out precautionary bombing, border ship – warning firing in the direction of movement of the Defender. A few minutes later, the destroyer allegedly left the “territorial sea” of Russia.
After the incident of the British military attaché in Moscow summoned to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
At the same time, the UK Department of Defense said that there was no shooting near their ship… The UK noted that the Russians were conducting artillery fire exercises in the Black Sea and warned the maritime community in advance of their activities.
BBC correspondent Jonathan Beale, who was aboard the Defender, said that one of the two Russian Coast Guard boats in pursuit of the British ship approached the destroyer within 100 meters. “Increasingly hostile warnings sounded on the radio, including this:”We’ll open fire if you don’t change course… We heard volleys in the distance, but we thought they were out of range, “the journalist said.
Although the Russian media presented this story as if the destroyer allegedly entered the “Russian territorial waters” near the occupied Crimea, and after the warning fire left them, monitoring the ship’s movement proves that the ship calmly continued its mission and did not change course, she noted. LIGA.net.
In the Kremlin called the route of the British destroyer “prepared provocation”, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation threatened to “bomb” ships that will enter the Russian-occupied part of the Black Sea.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the United Kingdom Navy will not interfere with walking off the coast of the Russian-occupied Crimea, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed that these are Ukrainian territorial waters and it was right to use them.
According to media reports, it was Johnson who took the final decision on the passage of the ship near the coast of the Crimea.
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