They were soaked in the rain and just lying around: explosive papers from the British Ministry of Defense, which could influence relations with Russia and Afghanistan, were accidentally found in Kent.
An unbelievable chance find: As the BBC reported on Sunday, a man found a pile of rain-soaked papers behind a bus stop in Kent in southern England, he took a closer look at them. It consisted of around 50 pages of confidential documents from the UK Department of Defense, including printed emails and Powerpoint presentations. Some referred to the controversial voyage of the warship “HMS Defender”: They show that London was well aware of a possible sharp reaction from Moscow to the passage of the warship off the coast of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that it had fired warning shots at the British warship for violating Russian territorial waters. A day later, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador to protest against the “provocative and dangerous actions”. London rejected this representation. Accordingly, the “HMS Defender” was only on a “peaceful passage through Ukrainian waters”.
Delicate documents were lying next to the bus stop
However, the documents that have now emerged under such unusual circumstances seem to show that the British ministry officials had expected a reaction from the Russian military. Nevertheless, they had decided against an alternative route – among other things, because Moscow could then have thought that the United Kingdom was “scared”, as the papers say. Other documents found included plans for a possible British military presence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of international forces.
“Something like that shouldn’t have happened,” said British security expert Brandon Lewis “Sky News”. According to the British Ministry of Defense, an employee had already reported the loss of the documents last week. The ministry takes the “security of information extremely seriously” and has opened an investigation, said the spokesman. On the subject of “HMS Defender” he added: “As the public should expect”, all potential influencing factors are carefully analyzed before “operational decisions”
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