European countries are set to take further steps as early as tomorrow to punish Russia over the poisoning of a former spy in England, officials said on Friday, as diplomatic pressure builds on Moscow over the nerve agent attack.
Russia has accused London of trying to force its European allies to take “confrontational steps” and unleashing an “anti-Russian campaign.”
EU leaders meeting in Brussels have agreed to recall EU Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer from Moscow over the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the English city of Salisbury.
Photo: Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron said the poisoning with the Soviet-made “Novichok” agent was an “attack on European sovereignty,” after EU leaders unanimously backed London’s assessment that it was “highly likely” Moscow was to blame and that there was no plausible alternative explanation.
A number of member states are considering following Britain’s lead and expelling Russian intelligence agents posing as diplomats, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that further coordinated actions were “necessary” to respond to the attack.
A group of 23 diplomats expelled by Moscow in a tit-for-tat move has “returned to the UK safely,” British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson said on Twitter late on Friday.
The question of whether to expel Russian diplomats would be left to individual member states, with European Council President Donald Tusk saying that action was expected as early as tomorrow.
However, divisions remain over how far to go, with Austria already ruling out expelling diplomats, and Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said it was not clear how many states would join the expulsions.
“More than one, but I don’t think that it will be the whole group,” Tusk said.
Macron told a news conference with Merkel after the summit in Brussels that the March 4 incident — for which Russia has denied responsibility — was “a serious challenge to our security and ... an attack on European sovereignty.”
“It calls for a coordinated, determined response from the European Union and its member states,” he said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May briefed other EU leaders on a probe into the attack over a summit dinner on Thursday.
She overcame resistance from countries such as Greece and Italy, which were reluctant to put their close Kremlin ties in jeopardy, to persuade them to back Britain’s conclusion that Moscow was to blame.
May shared “certain findings” that left little doubt Moscow was behind the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II, Merkel said.
“We believe that the analyses are already very well-founded and this has not been questioned by anyone,” Merkel said. “We agreed — Germany and France at least — that such reactions are still necessary in addition to recalling the ambassador.”
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