Salisbury poisoning victim says she is not ready to talk publicly, and urges her cousin to stay away

Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in Britain last month along with her father, a former Russian spy, has said she did not wish to take up the offer of services from the Russian embassy in London, according to a statement issued on her behalf by the Metropolitan police.



In the statement published on Wednesday, she said her father remained seriously ill and that she was still suffering from the effects of nerve agent used against them. She also addressed comments made by her cousin Viktoria in the Russian media, asking her not to contact or visit her in the UK.

Skripal confirmed that she was safe and had specially trained officers available to her during the recovery. She also said she would give interviews to the media in time, but asked the press to have patience while she recovers. The statement comes two days after she was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital.

Just over a month ago, she and her father were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, after being poisoned with a nerve agent. Sergei Skripal, 66, is also making progress and doctors hope he will be able to leave hospital “in due course”. Skripal, 33, flew to the UK on 3 March, the day before she and her father are believed to have been poisoned with the nerve agent novichok.

The testimony of the Skripals will be crucial in establishing the credibility of the British government’s claim that it was “highly likely” that the Russian state had targeted them with the nerve agent.

The Russian embassy in the UK has dismissed the statement and said there was “no possibility to verify it”, adding it “only strengthens suspicions that we are dealing with a forcible isolation of the Russian citizen”.

Moscow has waged a furious media battle in an attempt to discredit this account of events. It is likely that it will want to bring Yulia Skripal back to Russia.

The news of Yulia Skripal’s statement comes as residents in the Skripals’ street in Salisbury and in the surrounding area report a breakdown in the relationship with the investigation team in the last few days.

At a meeting between authorities and local people on Wednesday evening, one man, who was speaking on behalf of a resident living near the Skripals, said investigators had entered a woman’s home on Sunday and asked for the mobile phone numbers and car registration numbers of the occupants.

He said: “The police officers told her that because her garden backed on to the spy’s house, the perpetrators could have jumped over the garden.”

Another complained that police had been entering residents’ gardens without permission.

The nerve agent used on Yulia and Sergei Skripal has been tested by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and a report has been passed to the Cabinet Office. An executive summary will be published on Thursday.

In a statement release by the Met on Wednesday, Yulia said: “I was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital on the 9th April 2018. I was treated there with obvious clinical expertise and with such kindness, that I have found I missed the staff immediately.

“I have left my father in their care, and he is still seriously ill. I, too, am still suffering with the effects of the nerve agent used against us. I find myself in a totally different life than the ordinary one I left just over a month ago, and I am seeking to come to terms with my prospects, whilst also recovering from this attack on me.



“I have specially trained officers available to me, who are helping to take care of me and to explain the investigative processes that are being undertaken. 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. 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.”



“Most importantly, I am safe and feeling better as time goes by, but I am not yet strong enough to give a full interview to the media, as I one day hope to do. Until that time, I want to stress that no one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves. 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. Her opinions and assertions are not mine and they are not my father’s.

“For the moment I do not wish to speak to the press or the media, and ask for their understanding and patience whilst I try to come to terms with my current situation.”

• This article was amended on 13 April 2018. An earlier version omitted the first paragraph of Yulia Skripal’s statement.