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UK considers Russian embassy’s request for consular access to Yulia Skripal

According to Britain’s Sky News, Yulia Skripal has started eating and drinking

LONDON, March 31. /TASS/. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom is considering a request from the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom to grant consular access to Yulia Skripal, a Russian citizen, who is recovering after a nerve agent attack in Salisbury, according to the Office’s official statement.

"We are considering requests for consular access in line with our obligations under international and domestic law, including the rights and wishes of Yulia Skripal," a UK Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a statement.

Earlier, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom has demanded consular access to Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian military intelligence officer-turned-British mole Sergei Skripal, who is reportedly recovering, the diplomatic mission wrote on Twitter.

According to Britain’s Sky News, Yulia Skripal has started eating and drinking. The hospital in Salisbury treating her confirmed that Yulia "is improving and no longer in a critical condition." Her father remains "in a critical but stable condition."

On March 4, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and exchanged for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of a nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union. London expelled 23 Russian diplomats and announced other restrictive measures against Moscow.

Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia. In retaliation to the UK’s steps, 23 British diplomats were expelled, the British consulate general in the city of St. Petersburg was closed and the British Council had to shut down its operations in Russia.