Poisoning victim Yulia Skripal released from hospital

Yulia Skripal hasbeen discharged from hospital more than a month after she waspoisoned by a military-grade nerve agent together with herfather, a former Russian spy, the English hospital treating themsaidTuesday.

Yulia, 33,and Sergei Skripal, 66, a former colonel in Russianmilitary intelligence who betrayed dozens of spies to Britain's foreign intelligence service, were found unconscious on a publicbench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

With Britain accusing Russia of being behind the nerve agentattack, the affair has blown up into one of the biggest Russia-West crises since the Cold War.

Britain, the United States and other Western governmentshave expelled scores of Russian diplomats while Moscow hasretaliated in kind. Russia denies any involvement in an attackon the Skripals.

Both were in a critical condition for weeks, anddoctors at one point feared, even if they survived, they might have brain damage. But the Skripals' health since thenhas begun to improve rapidly.

Yuliahas been discharged from Salisbury DistrictHospital, Christine Blanshard, medical director of the hospital, told reporters and her father could be discharged in due course.

U.K. hospital releases nerve-agent victim Yulia Skripal

7 years ago

Duration 0:46

'This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone,' says Dr. Christine Blanshard

"We have now discharged Yulia," Blanshard said. "This is notthe end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone.

"Her father has also made good progress. On Friday, I announced he was no longer in a critical condition.Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope thathe too will be able to leave hospital in due course."

Yulia has been taken to a secure location, the BBC said.

Trading accusations

Russia has denied Britain's charges of involvement in thefirst known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soilsince World War II,and suggested Britain carried out the attackitself to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

Both Moscow and London have accused each other of trying todeceive the world with an array of claims, counter-claims andthreats.

Blanshard, a doctor with 25 years of experience, said nerveagents work by attaching themselves to particular enzymes in thebody that then stop the nerves from functioning. She said thishad resulted in sickness and hallucinations.

Giving the first details about the medical treatment of theSkripals, Blanshard said doctors had first sought to stabilize them to ensure that they could breathe and that blood couldcirculate.

"We then needed to use a variety of different drugs tosupport the patients, until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning," she said. "We alsoused specialized decontamination techniques to remove anyresidual toxins."

Blanshard did not say when Yulia had been discharged, but the BBCsaid she had left hospital on Monday night and was now in a safeplace.

Novichok poisoning

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals werepoisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developedby the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.

Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents, andPresident Vladimir Putin said it was nonsense to think that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.

"We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery," the Russian Embassy in London said. "Yet we need urgent proof that what isbeing done to her is done on her own free will."

The embassy also said it would consider any secret resettlement of Sergei and Yulia Skripal as an abduction of its citizens.If the pair were secretly resettled, the opportunity to hear their version of events would be lost, it said.

The attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russiandiplomats since the height of the Cold War as allies in Europeand the United States sided with May's view that Moscow waseither responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent.

But Moscow has hit back by expelling Western diplomats,questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible andoffering its rival interpretations, including that it amountedto a plot by British secret services.

Sergei Skripal, who was recruited by Britain's MI6, wasarrested for treason in Moscow in 2004. He ended up in Britain after being swapped in 2010 for Russian spies caught in theUnited States.

Since emerging from the John le Carre world of highespionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury andkept out of the spotlight until he was found poisoned.