Chemical security

UK must prove Russian role in spy poisoning or apologise, Kremlin says

The Kremlin has insisted the UK must prove Russia’s role in the poisoning of a former spy or apologise, as the EU called on Moscow to provide “full and complete disclosure of its novichok programme” to international experts. 

The demands for proof came as a team of international experts began a visit to Porton Down in Wiltshire on Monday to assess the nerve agent used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were invited by the UK to verify the nerve agent, but it will take at least two weeks before they have results.

During a meeting of 28 European foreign ministers in Brussels, the EU issued a statement expressing “unqualified solidarity with the UK”. But they stopped short of threatening new sanctions against Russia and avoided pinning the blame on the Kremlin.

The bloc said it took “extremely seriously the UK government’s assessment that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible”. This did not go as far as an earlier joint statement by France, Germany, the US and UK, which concluded it was “highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack”.