Yulia Skripal has refused assistance from Russia since leaving hospital, after her home country claimed Britain had “abducted” her. A diplomatic battle has been raging between the two nations over whether the Russian embassy should be allowed access to the 33-year-old daughter of ex-spy Sergei Skripal, both of whom were poisoned with a deadly nerve agent last month. Yulia Skripal, who was found critically ill alongside her 66-year-old father on a bench in Salisbury, was discharged from hospital in Wiltshire this week. It is believed that British authorities immediately transfered her away to a secure location. The embassy reacted angrily to the news, suggesting in a series of tweets that the Russian national had been taken against her will and had been effectively “abducted’. However, it is understood that the offer of consular support from Russia was presented to Skripal – and rejected. She is believed to have expressed no interest in talking to consular officials. Russia remains the prime suspect for carrying out the attack on Skripal and his daughter.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We have previously passed on the Russian embassy’s offer of consular support to Yulia. “She is free to decide on whether she wishes to pursue that. To date, we understand she has not done so.” The Foreign Office escalated the war of words on Tuesday, saying in a series of statements posted on social media: “Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation.” Skripal’s release from hospital was met with a similar broadside from the UK embassy, which has repeatedly criticised the handling of the investigation into the attack. In a statement, a spokesman said: “We congratulate Yulia on her recovery. “Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.”

Continuing the onslaught of scepticism on Wednesday morning, it suggested reports Skripal had turned down consular assistance actually revealed she is being “held hostage by the same people who destroy evidence and fail to come up with a single official account of the crime”. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov previously said it was “outrageous” that Britain had failed to provide consular access to Ms Skripal as news of her improving condition was announced earlier this month. Her release from hospital was announced by Salisbury District Hospital medical director Dr Christine Blanshard on Tuesday. She said: “Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment we’ve been providing. But, equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery. “I want to take this opportunity to wish Yulia well. This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone.” She added: “Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.” The former double agent was jailed in Russia for selling secrets to MI6 but was released as part of a spy swap deal in 2010 and settled in the UK. It is hoped he will soon be fit for release from hospital, despite grave fears that the exposure to military-grade nerve agent Novichok on March 4 would prove fatal. Britain has said that Russian state involvement is the only plausible explanation for the attack and has led a worldwide reaction involving the expulsion of more than 100 diplomats. </s> The Foreign Office has said it is considering a request from Russia to see Yulia Skripal over the Salisbury poisoning. The Russian embassy tweeted to demand to see her in hospital, despite the fact the UK Government has accused the Russian state of being behind the nerve agent attack on her and her father, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. The embassy tweeted on Friday that it was “good news” Yulia Skripal’s condition was improving and added they “insist on our right to see her” in hospital in Salisbury, where she has been since the poisoning on March 4.

On Saturday, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “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.” Yulia Skripal, 33, has spent three weeks in a critical condition after she and her father were exposed to Novichok. Sergei Skripal, 66, father remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital. On Thursday, the hospital said Yulia Skripal is “improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition”. “She has responded well to treatment but continues to receive expert clinical care 24 hours a day,” the hospital said. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack. Governments, including the UK and US, have expelled more than 100 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning.

Russia has expelled 23 British diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat response to Britain expelling the same number of Russians. On Friday, the Kremlin ordered Britain to further reduce the number of diplomats in Moscow down to the same amount that Russia has in London. It came as ambassadors from more than 20 countries were called into the foreign ministry in Moscow to be told of the latest wave of retaliatory measures being imposed. The Russian embassy also accused British authorities of “another blatant provocation” after an Aeroflot flight was allegedly searched by Border Force officers at Heathrow. An embassy official suggested that the jet, which had arrived from Moscow on a scheduled return trip, had been searched in connection with the diplomatic crisis over the Salisbury spy poisoning. </s> Russia has demanded to know why it has been “denied consular access” to the Skripals in a fresh list of questions for British authorities.

The embassy published a list of 14 questions on Saturday over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.

The first question on the list read: “Why has Russia been denied consular access to the two Russian nationals, Sergei and Yulia Skripal, that have become crime victims in the British territory?”

It also included demands to know what treatment the pair were given and queried France’s “involvement” in the investigation and asked if the Novichok could have been “researched, developed or produced in the UK”.

The Russian Embassy previously released a list of 27 questions about the case, including details about the Skripals’ condition.

It also claimed Mr Skripal’s niece had been inquiring after his health but that she had been ignored by the Foreign Office, and asked why no images or footage of the Skripals in hospital had been published.

Earlier on Saturday, the UK Foreign Office said it was considering a request from Russia to see Ms Skripal.

A spokeswoman for the FCO said the “rights and wishes of Yulia” will be taken into account as well as internal laws.

Ms Skripal spent three weeks in a critical condition after she and her father were exposed to Novichok on March 4.

The Russian Embassy had said it “insists” on the right to see Ms Skripal, 33, after it emerged she was improving rapidly.

An FCO spokeswoman said: “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.”

Mr Skripal remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

The Russian embassy also accused British authorities of “another blatant provocation” after an Aeroflot flight was allegedly searched by Border Force officers at Heathrow.

An embassy official suggested that the jet, which had arrived from Moscow on a scheduled return trip, had been searched in connection with the diplomatic crisis over the Salisbury spy poisoning.

The row intensified after the Kremlin ordered Britain to reduce the number of diplomats in Moscow down to the same amount that Russia has in London.

In response to reports that more than 50 British diplomats would be removed, the embassy said: “It is not about expulsion of British diplomats, it is about setting the overall number of people working at UK diplomatic missions in Russia and Russian diplomatic missions in the UK on the same level.”

The UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning of Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia with the nerve agent Novichok.

Russia has told a number of countries – including Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Norway and Australia – they must send home the same number of diplomats as they had ordered to leave their nations.

So far, more than 150 Russian diplomats, some of whom are suspected spies, have been told to return home by the UK’s allies.

Scotland Yard believes Mr Skripal and his daughter, who was visiting him from Russia, first came into contact with the deadly chemical at his home.

Detailed forensic testing revealed the highest concentration of Novichok was found on the front door.

 Mr Skripal and his daughter have been patients at Salisbury District Hospital since they were discovered unconscious on a park bench close to The Maltings shopping centre nearly four weeks ago.

Wiltshire Police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was also exposed to the nerve agent, was discharged from the hospital last week. </s> Announcement regarding daughter of poisoned spy comes amid row over search of Russian aircraft by British authorities

The Foreign Office has said it is considering Russia’s request for consular access to Yulia Skripal as a fresh row develops over why British authorities searched a Russian aircraft travelling from Moscow to London on Friday.

Russia’s transport ministry said it would demand an official explanation from the UK government for why a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane was searched by authorities at Heathrow on Friday, and threatened “similar actions” against British Airways planes in Russia.

The news comes as the FCO considers Russia’s request for consular access to Yulia Skripal, the daughter of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who is no longer in a critical condition after she was poisoned with a nerve agent along with her father in Salisbury earlier this month.

In a statement late on Friday, the Russian embassy in London described the search of Aeroflot flights 2582 and 2583 as “another blatant provocation” by UK authorities. It added that it had sent a diplomatic note asking for an explanation of the incident.

The embassy said British officials wanted to search the plane without the Russian crew present, but were prevented from doing so after an embassy official arrived at the airport. The statement said that “long negotiations were conducted” to ensure the right of the captain to take part in the search.

“At this moment, we have no other explanation but that the incident at Heathrow is in one way or another connected with the hostile policy that the UK government is conducting with regard to Russia,” the statement continued. Both Aeroflot and BA fly the London-Moscow route several times a day.

The Metropolitan police, which is co-ordinating the investigation into the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal, denied it was part of the aircraft search.



The UK security minister, Ben Wallace, said: “It is routine for Border Force to search aircraft to protect the UK from organised crime and from those who attempt to bring harmful substances like drugs or firearms into the country.

“Once these checks were carried out, the plane was allowed to carry on with its onward journey.”

The row comes as the FCO said the “rights and wishes of Yulia” would be taken into account when considering Russia’s request for access to the daughter of the poisoned spy.

She spent three weeks in a critical condition in hospital after both father and daughter were exposed to the nerve agent novichok earlier this month. But on Thursday, doctors announced that the 33-year-old’s condition was improving rapidly, prompting Russia’s request for access. Her father, Sergei Skripal, 66, remains in a critical condition.

An FCO spokeswoman told the Guardian: “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.”

On Friday, Russia announced further sanctions against Britain, once again escalating the fallout of the Skripal attack.

The foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said new measures, which require the staffing levels of the three British diplomatic missions in Russia to be reduced to the same level as Russian missions in Britain, would effectively mean that just over 50 UK embassy staff would have to leave. It was not immediately clear if this meant 50 diplomats or 50 embassy employees, including local staff.

Zakharova said Moscow had responded in kind to Britain’s initial expulsions, with both sides ordering 23 diplomats out. She said the latest round of Russian expulsions was punishment for the fact that “London carried out a campaign to have Russian diplomats expelled from EU countries and a number of other countries”. </s> LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) - Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in England last month along with her Russian ex-spy father, said on Wednesday (April 11) she has refused consular assistance from the Russian embassy.

Skripal was discharged from hospital on Monday, more than a month after the March 4 nerve agent attack in the English town of Salisbury which has sparked a global diplomatic crisis.

While her whereabouts are unknown, Skripal said she is being supported by police officers who are keeping her informed of their high-profile investigation.

"I have access to friends and family, and I have been made aware of my specific contacts at the Russian embassy who have kindly offered me their assistance in any way they can," she said in a note issued by London's Metropolitan Police.

"At the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services, but, if I change my mind I know how to contact them," she added.

Yulia Skripal was visiting her father when the attack took place. Sergei Skripal was imprisoned in Russia for selling secrets to British intelligence in the 1990s but was exchanged in a spy swap in 2010.

London blames Moscow for the attack, an accusation vehemently denied by the Russian government which has requested access to the Skripals as Russian citizens.

The ex-spy's daughter said her father "is still seriously ill" and said she herself is "still suffering with the effects of the nerve agent used against us".

"Most importantly, I am safe and feeling better as time goes by," she added.

Responding to reports that the pair may be resettled, the Russian embassy to London said: "Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family, will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation."

Sergei Skripal's niece, Viktoria Skripal, has spoken to Russian media about the poisoning and last week saw her application to visit Britain rejected, with officials saying it did not comply with immigration rules.

Yulia Skripal on Wednesday cast doubt on her cousin's account, saying: "Her opinions and assertions are not mine and they are not my father's."

"I thank my cousin Viktoria for her concern for us, but ask that she does not visit me or try to contact me for the time being," she said. </s> Russia has demanded to know why it has been 'denied consular access' to the Skripals in a fresh list of questions for British authorities.

The embassy published a list of 14 questions on Saturday over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.

The first question on the list read: 'Why has Russia been denied consular access to the two Russian nationals, Sergei and Yulia Skripal, that have become crime victims in the British territory?'

It also included demands to know what treatment the pair were given and queried France's 'involvement' in the investigation and asked if the nerve agent Novichok could have been 'researched, developed or produced in the UK'.

The Russian Embassy previously released a list of 27 questions about the case, including details about the Skripals' condition.

It also claimed Mr Skripal's niece had been inquiring after his health but that she had been ignored by the Foreign Office, and asked why no images or footage of the Skripals in hospital had been published.

Earlier on Saturday, the UK Foreign Office said it was considering a request from Russia to see Ms Skripal.

A spokeswoman for the FCO said the 'rights and wishes of Yulia' will be taken into account as well as internal laws.

Ms Skripal spent three weeks in a critical condition after she and her father were exposed to Novichok on March 4.

The Russian Embassy had said it 'insists' on the right to see Ms Skripal, 33, after it emerged she was improving rapidly.

An FCO spokeswoman said: '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.'

Mr Skripal remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

Questions also included whether the UK possessed samples of Novichok, and how UK authorities had determined the substance used in Salisbury came from Russia.

The list also asked which antidotes had been given to the former spy and his daughter, and how they had been available to medical staff.

The Russian embassy also accused British authorities of 'another blatant provocation' after an Aeroflot flight was allegedly searched by Border Force officers at Heathrow.

An embassy official suggested that the jet, which had arrived from Moscow on a scheduled return trip, had been searched in connection with the diplomatic crisis over the Salisbury spy poisoning.

The row intensified after the Kremlin ordered Britain to reduce the number of diplomats in Moscow down to the same amount that Russia has in London.

In response to reports that more than 50 British diplomats would be removed, the embassy said: 'It is not about expulsion of British diplomats, it is about setting the overall number of people working at UK diplomatic missions in Russia and Russian diplomatic missions in the UK on the same level.'

The UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning of Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia with the nerve agent Novichok.

Russia has told a number of countries - including Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Norway and Australia - they must send home the same number of diplomats as they had ordered to leave their nations.

So far, more than 150 Russian diplomats, some of whom are suspected spies, have been told to return home by the UK's allies.

Scotland Yard believes Mr Skripal and his daughter, who was visiting him from Russia, first came into contact with the deadly chemical at his home.

Detailed forensic testing revealed the highest concentration of Novichok was found on the front door.

Mr Skripal and his daughter have been patients at Salisbury District Hospital since they were discovered unconscious on a park bench close to The Maltings shopping centre nearly four weeks ago.

Wiltshire Police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was also exposed to the nerve agent, was discharged from the hospital last week. </s> The UK Court of Protection has given permission for blood samples of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were poisoned in Salisbury, to be taken for testing by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Sky News television channel reported Thursday.

READ MORE: Russian Journalist Covering Skripal Case Reveals She Was Threatened in UK

On March 14, the UK envoy to the UN Security Council announced that the United Kingdom had asked the OPCW to independently verify its findings in the nerve agent attack against Skripal. On Monday, the OPCW experts arrived in the United Kingdom for the investigation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry requested the UK Foreign Office to allow a joint investigation into the case. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded that Moscow should receive access to all the facts and documents connected with the investigation, since one of the victims is Yulia Skripal, a Russian citizen.

Ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious earlier in March on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury. Both of them remain in critical condition and are being treated for exposure to a chemical. </s> Any secret resettlement of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK would be an “abduction”, the Russian embassy in London has said.

The former Russian double agent and his daughter were poisoned by a deadly nerve agent in Salisbury last month, and have been recovering in hospital for the last month.

On Monday, doctors announced Yulia had been released and taken to a secure location, raising questions about whether the 33-year-old would be resettled or granted asylum in the UK or US.

Soon after the announcement by the hospital, the Russian embassy said resettlement of the pair would be “another gross violation of international law”.

“The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation,” a statement read.

The poisoning has triggered a diplomatic standoff between Britain, its allies and Russia in the last five weeks.

Last week Yulia Skripal was reported to have dismissed a Russian request for consular access to her. Her cousin, Viktoria, who has appeared on Russian state-owned television to discuss the case, said she had been denied a British visa to visit the pair.

The Sunday Times reported the pair would likely be given new identities and relocated, possibly to America. </s> The Home Office have rejected a visa application by Viktoria Skripal - cousin of Yulia, who was poisoned in the Salisbury attack.

The poisoned Russia's cousin will not be allowed to visit Britain after it was reported that she was deliberately being coached by Moscow to discredit Yulia.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We have refused a visitor visa application from Viktoria Skripal on the grounds that her application did not comply with the Immigration Rules."

It came after reports that Yulia Skripal had declined to meet Russian consular officials, amid British claims that she was poisoned with a nerve agent by an operation staged by Moscow’s secret services.

Speaking on Russian state TV before being denied entry Viktoria Skirpal said: "I currently have one objective: to fly there and take away Yulia, at least Yulia.”

She also said she was in regular contact with Russia’s ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko.

Yulia is facing growing abuse in her homeland.

A barrage of hostile comments - some implying she was part of an British secret services plot to damage Vladimir Putin - coincide with claims that her apparent telephone call with relative Viktoria Skripal was scripted by her official minders in Salisbury.

Yesterday the Met issued a statement on behalf of Yulia Skripal.

She said: "I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily."

It comes as it was revealed poisoned former spy, Sergei Skripal is "responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition", according to doctors at Salisbury District Hospital.

Skripal has remained in a critical condition in hospital for a month after he, and his daughter Yulia, were attacked with a nerve agent on March 4.

While Yulia started improving last week and has since regained consciousness Sergei did not show signs of improvements.

But now doctors have said the 66-year-old is "responding well to treatment" and "is no longer in a critical condition".

Dr Christine Blanshard, medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, said: "I would like to take the opportunity to update you on the condition of the two remaining patients being treated at Salisbury District Hospital.

"Last Thursday, I informed you that Yulia Skripal's condition had improved to stable. 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.

"Any speculation on when that date will be is just that - speculation. In the meantime, Yulia has asked for privacy while she continues to get better - something I'd like to urge the media to respect.

"I also want to update you on the condition of her father, Sergei Skripal. He is responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition.

"As you'll appreciate, I won't be giving any further updates at this time."

Upon hearing the latest condition check the Russian Embassy also took to social media to say it was "Good news".
The United Kingdom Foreign Office considers a consular request from the government of Russia for visitation with Yulia Skripal, the daughter of poisoned ex-spy Sergei Skripal.