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Salisbury investigation continues — Met Police

The investigation into the alleged poisoning of former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia will continue, Great Britain’s Metropolitan Police say

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. The investigation into the alleged poisoning of former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which took place in the British city of Salisbury, will continue, Great Britain’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Friday.

"Detectives from the UK's Counter Terrorism Policing network continue to investigate the attempted murders of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in March this year. They are both making good progress and we are pleased that Mr Skripal has now also been released from hospital, which was announced by the NHS [National Health Service] earlier this morning," the statement reads.

"This is a complex investigation and detectives continue to gather and piece together all the evidence to establish the full facts and circumstances behind this dreadful attack," the Met Police said, adding that "in the interests of Sergei and Yulia’s safety, we will not be discussing any protective or security arrangements that are in place."

Skripal saga

According to London, Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations.

The British media initially reported that the Skripals were in critical condition and their odds of survival were minimal but both managed to recover. Yulia was discharged from the hospital in early April but her whereabouts have been unknown since then.

The Russian embassy in London many times requested the British authorities provide consular access to the Skripals who are both Russian citizens but all requests were rejected. "Considering all the facts, we now have more reasons to qualify this situation as an abduction of the two Russian nationals. We will continue to seek the truth and demand answers from the British side," Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko said in this regard.