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Salisbury hospital stays mum on when Yulia Skripal will be released

Yulia said she is regaining her strength daily

© AP Photo/Matt Dunham

LONDON, April 6. /TASS/. Medical professionals cannot provide a date when Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal, will be released from the hospital, the British National Health Service website stated on Friday.

"As Yulia herself says, her strength is growing daily and she can look forward to the day when she is well enough to leave the hospital," Christine Blanshard, Medical Director at Salisbury District Hospital, said in a statement. "But any speculation on when that date will be is just that - speculation."

Medical professionals have reminded the public of Yulia Skripal’s request for her and her family’s privacy during the recovery period.

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On March 4, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a nerve agent allegedly developed in Russia, London rushed to accuse Moscow of being involved in the incident. The Russian side flatly 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. Then tensions escalated when London expelled 23 Russian diplomats without providing any evidence and said other measures against Moscow would be taken. In response, Moscow took tit-for-tat steps by expelling the same number of British diplomats from Russia and ordering the closure of the British Consulate-General in St. Petersburg, in addition to shutting down the British Council’s offices in Russia.

Later on, the Russian Foreign Ministry requested that the total number of all employees in the British Embassy in Moscow and Britain’s consulate generals in Russia should be equal to the number of Russian diplomats and staff who are currently on long-term assignments in the UK.

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