Row over nerve agent attack on British soil deepens, as EU joins in

The nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy has sparked a contagious diplomatic row with the European Union now backing the United Kingdom in blaming Moscow for the attack on English soil.

Reports say the European Union has also gone ahead to recall its envoy in Moscow at a time when British Prime Minister Theresa May has been asking other nations to match her decision to expel Russians over the attack.

In a joint summit statement, the leaders said the EU “agrees with the United Kingdom government’s assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible and that there is no plausible alternative explanation”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also forced to add her voice to the matter, when she said the European Union would strive to act together on the matter.

BORIS JOHNSON: Russia has been stockpiling nerve agent used on former spy

“We are determined to react together, with the language we used here, but also possibly through additional measures,” Merkel said at the end of the first day of the summit.

Russian authorities have ordered the UK to provide proof that it actually used a nerve-agent on British soil following the alleged poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia in the southwestern British city of Salisbury.

Russia’s reaction came after the UK piled pressure on Moscow to reveal details of supply of Novichok, used in the ‘attempted murder’ of the double agent and his daughter who were both found in a collapsed state on a public bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury, last month.

 

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