THE HAGUE, July 18. /TASS/. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is providing assistance to the UK in order to determine the type of chemical used in Amesbury, the press release published on the organization’s website states.
The OPCW received a request for technical assistance from the UK on 13 July. In response to the request, the organization sent out a group of experts "to independently determine the nature of the substance that is alleged to have resulted in the death of one person and left another person seriously ill."
The specialists have collected all samples and returned to the Hague. The samples will be sent to the designated OPCW laboratories. According to the OPCW, "once the results of the analysis are received, the report will be submitted to the United Kingdom."
On June 30, Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charles Rowley, 45, were taken to a hospital in the city of Amesbury in critical condition. On the evening of July 8, Scotland Yard reported that Sturgess had died, and the investigators launched a murder case. Rowley regained consciousness on July 10.
Earlier, the London police counterterrorism department stated that Sturgess and Rowley had come into contact with Novichok - the same nerve agent that had poisoned former GRU [Russian intelligence service] Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. London also pinned all the blame on Moscow. Russia repeatedly refuted all accusations of its involvement in this incident.