British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it is "highly likely" that Russia is responsible for the poisoning of former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
"It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as ‘Novichok’," the prime minister said in a statement to MP’s.
"Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at Porton Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so," Theresa May said in her statement to the House of Commons.
Theresa May described the incident with Skripal as Russia’s "indiscriminate" and "reckless" attack against the UK.
The prime minister said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson summoned Russia's ambassador to London demanding a full report on how the nerve agent came to have been used in the poisoning. He demanded that Russia disclose the details of its Novichok nerve agents program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
"On Wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the Russian state. Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom," TASS cited her as saying.
