Poland condemns Skripal murder attempt. Demands explanations from Russia

PM Mateusz Morawiecki condemned an attempt to murder the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal on British soil and demanded Russia to address the UK’s questions regarding the case. “We condemn this unprecedented attack on the territory of the United Kingdom. This use of chemicals as weapons is clearly violating international law,” Morawiecki said in a statement. “At the same time, we call on Russia to address the UK’s questions and appropriately cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in this regard.” Poland expressed its readiness to support Britain, its close ally, in the investigation. Both the US and the UK accuse Russia to be behind the attempted murder. Britain said it would expel 23 Russian diplomats who are undeclared spies and suspend all high-level contact with Moscow. Furthermore, no UK officials, including the royal family will attend this year’s World Cup in Russia. An invitation to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, to visit the UK was also revoked. “We consider it categorically unacceptable and unworthy that the British government, in its unseemly political aims, further seriously aggravated relations,” Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement. Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in Salisbury after they were poisoned. The two remain in critical condition in a hospital. The authorities were able to confirm, that Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s was used to poison them. Skripal was arrested in Moscow in 2004. He was later sent to the UK in exchange for captured Russian spies.