Re: A couple of things here
Royal Navy missions often have media representatives on board, usually on the flagship of the formation. If the mission has a sole RN ship involved, it'd obviously be that one.
Downplaying it is good diplomacy. The message to Russia is 'these are not your waters', downplaying it tells the rest of the world is 'we are not raising tensions', with a message to both of 'Russia do not scare us'.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
